On Your Side: Turn your trees into food for Dallas Zoo's elephants

DALLAS - A stormy summer means lots of damaged trees and an opportunity to do something good for the Dallas Zoo. Steve Noviello goes On Your Side to tell you how you can donate your yard waste as food for the zoo's elephants.

Elephants eats 200 to 300 pounds of trees per day, every day. So the zoo has a team of women who scour the city for limbs and toppled trees. They also collect trees by request.

"Especially if that's a tree that you grew up with, keep in mind that it's going to feed an elephant as opposed to going in a landfill or get chipped for mulch," said Christina Eastwood with the Dallas Zoo.

To donate, Dallas residents should cut their downed trees into manageable pieces just prior to pickup. Then e-mail info@dallaszoo.com to let the zoo know you've got some trees for feed. What the zoo can't take, the city willl clear away on the next collection day.

In addition to collecting from residents, the zoo also has a partnership with the city of Dallas to collect tree trimmings from municipal golf courses. That program is expected to expand to all municipal properties this fall.

People outside of Dallas can help too by contacting the zoo and dropping off donations.