NATIONAL GUARD TO DEPLOY DISCARDED CHRISTMAS TREES TO RESTORE LOUISIANA WETLANDS Meanwhile, in New Orleans:  The US Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the Louisiana National Guard’s 1st Assault Helicopter Battalion, will conduct the city’s annual Christmas Tree Drop, in which thousands of fir trees collected this week will be deposited by Black Hawk into the 23,000-ac swamp that sits within the city limits. The dead trees placed in the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge allow sediment to collect and provide habitat, creating a base for recolonization of degraded wetland areas by native marsh grasses and birds; about 175 acres of wetlands have been restored in this way since the program began. [The Times-Picayune, Mother Nature Network]