Why Isle of Wight Christmas trees are good for environment

Thompson’s at Newchurch has close to 100,000 trees growing bringing not only commercial benefits and a feel-good factor but also environmental benefits.

The company, known for retail purposes as Shide Trees, has been growing its own trees on the Isle of Wight for more than 20 years now.

Its small team of knowledgeable, experienced staff, led by head grower Peter, manage a 130-acre nursery.

Thompsons's trees in pots and in the ground. (Image: Thompsons Nurseries)

It is a member of The British Christmas Tree Growers' Association, who believe in the sustainable farming of Christmas trees.

Thompson's says the trees grow from taking the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

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It claims one Christmas tree will then release enough clean oxygen for at least 18 people.

For every tree that’s cut, another is planted, so there’s always a constant cycle of growing Christmas trees.

This spring, it planted 7,000 Nordman fir trees and 3,500 spruces, some of which will still be in the ground 20 years from now.

Another environmental benefit is the wildlife haven the nursery has created.

On the nursery, a reservoir was built about 30 years ago.

It was landscaped around the edges and, over the subsequent years, has matured into a wildlife haven.

It reuses the water from the lake to irrigate fresh planting on the nursery.

The lake itself has a good range of fish as well as an abundance of beautiful dragonflies and damselflies, coots, moorhens and a resident kingfisher.

The trees surrounding the lake are homes to many birds, including nuthatches, tree creepers and woodpeckers.

Several years ago now, Thompson's installed bee hives on the nursery.

This year the beekeepers have had a nice lot of honey off the hives.

Thompson's says buying a locally grown real Christmas tree has a much smaller carbon footprint and therefore better for the environment that an artificial tree.

A spokesman said: "Your real tree is also 100 per cent recyclable after Christmas."

Shide Christmas Trees opens tomorrow (Wednesday) at its usual site at the junction of Shide Road and Blackwater Road in Newport.