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Cypress mulch versus Aspen opinions?

Robert how much are you paying for aspen and how big of a bag do you get? Ill explain my question in a bit.
 
If you're going to buy your cypress from a local store (garden supply store, home improvement store, Walmart, etc.) just look for 100% cypress. You want to avoid the "cypress blend" bags because you don't know what else is in there. I bought a bag of cypress mulch from Walmart without really paying attention a couple years ago and when I opened the bag I found bits and pieces of what looked like old pallets. Some of the pieces had blue paint on them. Needless to say, I learned a valuable lesson.

You might have luck finding the large bags of cypress from an online retailer if you can't find a local supplier.
 
I think everyone is missing out on the key reason not to use cypress mulch: it is not a sustainable resource. The demand for cypress mulch is greater than what the trees can product (unlike aspen, cocoa fiber, newspaper, and a whole slew of other substrates).

Google "cypress mulch environmental impact" and you will see what I am talking about. To summarize what you will find, cypress trees protect the marshlands (including its people and animals) of the southern United States, by reducing the amount of flooding, but are being overlogged.

"It’s been estimated that every 2.7 square miles of wetlands reduces storm surge by a foot, and yet over the last century Louisiana has stripped away 1,900 square miles of swamp, an area the size of Delaware. Evidence shows that such improper land management, reducing the cypress-tupelo swamps to a small fraction of their original grandeur, worsened flooding in New Orleans during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/opinion/12fleischli.html

If you know anyone debating between these two substrates, please forward them that article. The people and animals of the South will greatly appreciate it.
 
I am new to herp so my opinion might not hold as much validity but i use cypress for both my ball and bull they both seem to like it have had them in there for one about a month and the other 2 months have noticed no ill effects. The Ball I keep just a layer to about an inch thick along with damp sphrgram moss inside the hides but the bull like burry herself under the cypress so i keep a good 3 inches and she is always burrowing under it. I get it from Menards for 2.50 it's a large mulch bag and it also reads 100% organic cypress.
 
Also to add on to that last part the cypress is not milled from a non-sustainable resource Menards is pretty p.c so i just hope im not contributing to the flood lands of lousianna becuase it's such a great safe place to live....i know i know it's for the enviroment, really theres nothing that humans haven't effed up, thats for another thread.
 
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