GORHAM — The goats at Orchard Ridge Farm are about to get very busy — and very happy.

The Gorham farm is one of several around the state that takes discarded Christmas trees and turns them into tasty treats for their livestock.

It’s a win-win for people and animals.

“It’s fresh food; there’s vitamins in it,” co-owner Mary Walker said. “It’s almost as good as green grass.”

As the holiday season comes to a close, feeding goats is just one of the options for disposing of Christmas trees. Some will be turned into mulch. Some may be buried on beaches to stabilize sand dunes. And some will be piled on the beach in Old Orchard this week for the town’s annual New Year’s Eve bonfire.

PICK-UP AND DROP-OFF DISPOSAL

Many towns offer pick-up or drop-off tree recycling and disposal.

Portland has a “Treecycling” program and will be accepting trees free of ornaments, lights and tinsel starting in January. Trees will be taken to Riverside Recycling, where they will be chipped and mulched.

Leftover Christmas trees at Broadway Gardens in South Portland on Sunday. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Residents can drop off their Christmas trees throughout the month in three locations: the upper right parking lot at the Eastern Promenade on Cutter Street, the salt shed area near the Little League field in Payson Park and the north course at Riverside Golf Course.

Public Works crews will also be collecting trees put out on the curb from Jan. 6-17, though pick-up might not coincide with residents’ usual trash day.

South Portland curbside Christmas tree collection begins on Jan. 6 and continues for two weeks. Trees can also be brought to the South Portland Transfer Facility.

In Old Orchard Beach, you can bring your Christmas tree to the annual New Year’s Eve “Last Blast” celebration on the beach, where it will be used in a bonfire.

FEED FOR GOATS

Orchard Ridge Farm has accepted spent Christmas trees from the public for the past three years. People can just pull up to the goat pen and the staff will help them dump their tree in, Walker said.

“These (trees) stay most of the winter, whatever is delivered, and we’ll just keep swapping them out,” Walker said.

Walker said she will take trees at any point, but she tends to get the most over the next two weeks. Orchard Ridge is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Tuesday.

Orchard Ridge also sells its own Christmas trees. They had a small overstock this year, which went right to the animals, Walker said.

Mary Walker, owner of Orchard Ridge Farm, with her goats Brownie, left, and Betty. Katie Langley/Portland Press Herald

The farm has received about seven trees so far, she said. Once the branches have been eaten through, the trees go on the burn pile.

“I put a few in the chicken pen because they like to have some nice trees in the pen so it feels a little more natural and they go and peck on them,” Walker said. “Eventually, through the winter, somebody will use them.”

Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook, which has collected Christmas trees in past years, is not taking trees from individual customers this year. The farm may accept trees from businesses that call ahead, staff announced in a Facebook post last week.

Another option is Iron Leaf Farm in Lichfield. People can leave undecorated trees by the driveway or barn or stop by for the annual Christmas Tree Drop event on Jan. 4 and meet the goats.

WHAT ARE TREE SELLERS DOING?

Broadway Gardens, a greenhouse center with locations in South Portland and Westbrook, usually donates most of their leftover trees to goat farms after the holiday. They chip up the remainder to be added to compost, said Gavin McCannell of Broadway Gardens.

“We gave some to Smiling Hill Farms (this year),” McCannell said. “Some other people will trail in, and they say they have goats, so we’ll give them trees for goats … we had a customer come in yesterday, we gave her eight trees for her goats.”

In the past, the business has donated overstock trees to local beaches using the trees to rebuild elevation by trapping sand, said Broadway Gardens owner Philip Roberts. Last holiday season, Popham Beach State Park in Phippsburg collected 450 trees to rebuild its dunes, and South Portland’s Willard Beach had success with a similar program in 2023.

Broadway Gardens’ location in Westbrook donates many of its extra trees to the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, Roberts said.

Roberts said that his business had more overstock trees than usual this year.

He attributed this to fears in the industry about a shortage of trees coming out of North Carolina — the second-largest Christmas tree producer in the county — in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Broadway Gardens gets most of their Fraser firs from Canada, not North Carolina, but Roberts said he bought a few hundred extra trees this year, causing a surplus when the shortage never came.

Before the holiday, the greenhouse anticipated extras and donated several trees to the local food banks to give out to families, Roberts said.