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"It'll grow for about 10-12 years before it's harvested, faster or slower depending on management. While it's growing it's taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and it's making sugars and making cellulose, essentially it's harvesting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for those 10 or 12 years,” said Dr. Russell Briggs, SUNY ESF.

So you cut it, so then maybe it sits around for 6 to 8 weeks depending on how long you want the tree in your house and then it goes outside. Some people with turn it into mulch, some people will burn it but eventually it goes back to the atmosphere which puts carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere but the next growing trees take up that carbon dioxide so if you think about it, it's carbon neutral.

While that recycling is going on, the growing trees provide wildlife habitat.

Actually interesting, a few years ago I had a study looking at fertilization and I discovered a bunch of turkey eggs right underneath this fir tree.

And what about the fertilizer used to grow Christmas trees, can't that hurt the environment?

Oftentimes you'll get a little bit better color with fertilization. Most soils are slightly deficient in nitrogen when you're trying to grow crops so the demand on the soil is high and people fertilize and that nitrogen is absorbed into the soil. Fertilization at reasonable levels, there's nothing wrong with it. Fertilization at excessive levels first of all is expensive and it's very soluble so that has a potential negative impact if you over fertilize.

Dr. Briggs says minimal amounts of herbicides are used to grow Christmas trees and irrigation systems are rare.