Beach towns want Christmas trees to help with recovery

NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina beach town is looking for discarded Christmas trees to help it recover from Hurricane Florence.

WITN in Greenville reports officials in North Topsail Beach said the discarded trees act as a natural sand fence and the plan is to secure them along the beach, and with strong ocean winds pushing sand, the dunes lost to the storm will begin to be restored.

Town of North Topsail Beach said the town lost at least half of its dunes when the tide washed up onto the beach during Florence.

Officials estimate it would cost up to $85 million to replace beach sand and dunes lost to Florence, but Christmas trees are a free and natural way to replace lost sand.

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Information from: WITN-TV, http://www.witn.com/