Cypress Wetlands and Mulch

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Say NO! to Cypress Mulch

Bald cypress trees (Taxodium distichum) provide invaluable flood and hurricane protection, water pollution filtration, and wildlife habitat. Native to the southeastern United States, these magnificent trees grow in wetlands along our rivers and coasts. Already logged heavily over the past several hundred years, what trees are left are now being logged at an alarming rate and ground into mulch for gardens and landscaping. Cypress mulch suppliers claim it is a superior mulch product, yet this is just fancy marketing. There are other mulch products out there that perform just as well without the destruction of valuable forest ecosystems. To name a few: pine bark, pine needles and leaf litter.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper encourages you to continue contacting your local stores who provide cypress mulch and ask them to discontinue the sale of this unsustainable product. Click here to download a “Cypress Pledge” flyer that “cypress friendly” stores and businesses can post in their windows. Please let me know if you are able to get pledges from anyone: [email protected]

Learn more from Sierra Club: sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/sce/delta-chapter/publications/Myths-About-Cypress-Mulch.pdf 

This Cypress video, Save Our Cypress, was produced by Paul Orr of Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper in Louisiana.

See the links below for more information on some alternatives to Cypress mulch products. It was brought to our attention that recycled tire mulches are not a good idea.

Nature’s Way Resources on rubber mulch
http://www.natureswayresources.com/DocsPdfs/RubberMulch.pdf
Now You Too Can Kill Your Garden With Rubber Mulch!
http://www.paghat.com/rubbermulch.html
Artificial Turf: Exposures to Ground Up Rubber Tires – Athletic Fields, Playgrounds, Garden Mulch
http://www.ehhi.org/reports/turf/

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