A CAMPAIGN to urge people to buy locally grown Christmas trees was this week launched by the Tamar Valley Marketing organisation.
The group is promoting trees which have been grown in the Tamar Valley specifically for the Christmas market.
Bob Barret, project co-ordinator at Tamar Valley Marketing, said: ?I would urge people to ask where the tree they are buying has been grown.
?It seems silly that trees are grown in the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but most of the Christmas trees on sale in the area have come from as far afield as Finland and Scotland.?
Mr Barrett said there were many environmental benefits to buying a real Christmas tree, rather than an artificial one. While the tree is growing it is absorbing carbon dioxide, thus benefiting efforts to combat greenhouse gases.
And growers in the Tamar Valley replace cut trees each year with new seedlings ? additionally, Christmas trees are often grown as a ?nurse crop? to protect new areas of deciduous woodland.
One outlet selling locally grown trees is the Tamar Valley Donkey Park at St Ann?s Chapel.
The park?s David Gibbons said: ?Our trees come from Capeltor, just across the river, and they have benefited the environment locally while they were growing.
?They have only travelled a couple of miles before going on sale, which means less exhaust pollution ? and the trees are usually fresher, meaning fewer dropped needles!?