Christmas trees will be used to protect sand dunes

Young farmers in Cornwall have collected Christmas trees to raise money for charity - and to help a sand dunes project.

Launceston Young Farmers Club said it picked up about 100 trees after Christmas in exchange for a charitable donation.

The group said the collection raised £500 for The Brain Tumour Charity and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

It added the trees would be used in a project to protect sand dunes on north Cornwall's coast from erosion.

The group said the trees had been passed to community interest company Beach Guardians for a project it runs aimed at enhancing the habitats of sand dunes along north Cornwall's coast.

Beach Guardian said the project used the trees to protect the dunes by preventing flooding and coastal erosion.

It added the trees acted as a barrier and retained sand in their branches to help prevent the dunes from falling apart.

The organisation said some of the trees would be planted at Constantine Bay on Sunday with a second planting taking place on 26 January in Porthcothan Bay.

Jess Hill, secretary of Launceston Young Farmers, said the collection proved to be very popular.

She added: "We've had some 7-8ft (2.13m-2.44m) trees from some of the bigger houses, but thankfully some of the boys have bigger trailers to help with those."

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