Donating a Christmas tree can boost angling action

Once the wrapping paper has been thrown away and the last drop of eggnog has been consumed, few people have a use for that evergreen tree that graced their home during the holiday season. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has a new job for those leftover trees — as fish habitat.

The AGFC has drop-off locations across the state to let old Christmas trees have a second life as underwater cover.

Jason Olive, AGFC assistant chief of fisheries, said the small spaces and dense cover offered by fresh Christmas trees make excellent nursery habitat for small fish.

“In ponds where we’ve sunk Christmas trees, we’ve seen increased growth in smaller fish,” Olive said. “Young bass, crappie and bream, and baitfish, all benefit from the cover, and larger gamefish will be attracted to the smaller fish.”

Anglers are welcome to remove trees from drop-off locations to create their own fish attractors. Olive suggests using parachute cord and cinder blocks to weight down the trees.

“Sink groups of Christmas trees together,” Olive said. “Within two to three years, you won’t have much left except the trunks, but when we drained Lower White Oak Lake in Ouachita County recently, we saw several nice piles of Christmas-tree trunks that were still good fish habitat after 12 years of being in the water.”

Trees should be clean of all ornaments, lights and tinsel before they are dropped off. Artificial Christmas trees should not be used as fish habitat.

Trees can be dropped off at any of the following locations in the Three Rivers Edition coverage areåa until the end of January: Reed Access at Lake Barnett; and at Greers Ferry Lake — Sandy Beach at Heber Springs, Devils Fork Recreation Area near Higden and Greers Ferry, and the Choctaw Recreation Area, east of Clinton and Choctaw.