Talk about going green. What a joke. It takes 7 yrs to grow a fine looking tree only to be cut down for a profit and then more money is made selling them and then used for a few days and then burned or thrown on the sidewalk. I remember President Johnson once said" We will plant a bush, a shrub, and a tree, to beautify America".

Why do you keep deleting my video of the tree burning?

Hi Mark, this is Chris Helms at Patch. To my knowledge, none of us at Patch have done that. I'm suspecting it's a technical problem. We love it when residents share videos on Patch. Let me check into it...

Hi again, Mark. I don't see anything technically wrong that should prevent it. If it is an especially large video, over 20MB, I think, it's possible our system just can't handle files that big. Thanks again and I'm very sorry for the technical problems.

Would these trees have been planted in the first place if they weren't going to be harvested and sold? It does seem to at least be carbon neutral when they are burned. And there is an economic gain and some pleasure received in the middle. Seems like a good deal all around to me. Unless of course you happen to be a tree :)

The trees that are not burned,end up being chipped at lower gallows hill

Why this fascination with big fires? This story and video clips are some pyromaniac's delight!

Let's just do away with all the American traditions....the "Holiday Tree" should be banned all together...no live trees, no fake trees....just no trees! No Manger scenes should be allowed anywhere...period! No bonfires of the "holiday" trees....nasty! Why not just eliminate Christmas and Easter and the tooth fairy. I'm on the fence about Presidents day and Veteran's day and Patriot's day....but I guess it wouldn't be PC to eliminate Martin Luther King Day so we'll leave that....oh wait, what will the Government offices do without all those Monday paid Holidays???? I give up this is just all too messy for me....I guess I will just hang with tradition....Christmas, Christmas trees, Bonfires, Easter, Easter egg hunts, bunnies, Church, Veteran's and Patriot Day Celebrations and thanks for their sacrifices....You can all celebrate what you want or nothing at all...makes no difference to me........just sayin ;-)

Burn, Baby, Burn! :)

Oh my word!!!!!!!..we can post videos on patch....holy molybdenum.....see you in a few days.....this will certainly piss off a few corrupt cops.......I'm a dummy for not thinking of this

Lets chop down all the trees and burn them. While we are at it lets get rid of all the wasted land and get rid of the woodland so we can build more Condo's and Rental properties. That way all the animals won't have a place to go so we can kill them for food. Just saying.

Thanks for posting video! Environmental concerns aside - this is a really safe, family friendly activity that Salem promotes that turns a typically boring incidental moment (throwing the tree away) into a community building event. That, I think, is commendable.
- Beth from www.connectshore.com

I would of made wildlife enclosures...instead of burning......we take but never give back......

I am glad they have the tree burning, I've noticed over the years that more people are bringing their trees to the bonfire and there are less trees to drive around that don't get picked up for weeks and end up rolling around in the streets with the wind. Christmas trees are grown to be used at X-mas and for every one cut , a new one is planted. It can hardly be called a waste when the tree served its purpose then its used again to bring people together to watch the bonfire.

You can always make beer!
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/01/04/168561089/dont-waste-that-christmas-tree-turn-it-into-spruce-beer?ft=3&f=111787346&sc=nl&cc=es-20130106

Finally someone is making some sense.