Discarded Christmas trees will soon be used to improve bank fishing opportunities at Carters Lake.
Members of Keep Gilmer Beautiful (KGB) joined Carters Lake personnel for a Jan. 8 Christmas tree recycling event at the East Ellijay Lowe’s. More than 100 trees were collected between that one-day event and drop-off areas at the Doll Mountain and Ridgeway Park boat ramps, which were open Dec. 23-Jan. 14.
“That figure surpassed anything that we predicted,” said Karen Vitelli, KGB member.
The trees will be used to provide habitat and bottom cover for smaller fish in the man-made U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake. That should bring fish closer to the surface and improve conditions for those who prefer fishing from the lake’s banks, noted Carters Lake Ranger Allen Earhart.
“Bank fishing is kind of a limited factor for Carters, which is a very hard lake to fish from the banks and be successful because of the depth. Most everybody who comes out here to fish is fishing from a boat,” he added.
“We want the trees to be in 10-15 foot of water at normal pool. We’re going to take (the trees) and try to get different places set up throughout the area, then mark those locations to direct people to a known structure around the bank where they’ll have a good opportunity to catch a fish.”
Trees have previously been used for fish habitat at the lake, confirmed Earhart.
“We’ve been doing this for at least seven years. We’ve had collection sites at Doll Mountain and South Rereg. Park to collect trees. This year, we did it at Doll Mountain and Ridgeway Park,” he added.
Joining with Keep Gilmer Beautiful for the first time helped get word out to the public about donating their unwanted Christmas trees, Earhart noted.
“They did excellent (with the tree collection), but their support and public outreach is the biggest thing,” he added. “I don’t think a lot of people realize that we’re working to enhance the fish habitat around the lake, so this kind of brings eyes to the program. With our partnership, people are going to be able to see the final results.”
A workday will be held in spring to place the trees around the lake bank, Earhart said. They will be weighed down with cable and concrete blocks to keep them in place.
“Fish like structure. That’s their home,” Earhart said. “The trees will provide the cover for these smaller fish, and will grow algae, which will provide nutrients for fish, invertebrates and the food chain all the way up. The algae is more for the invertebrates, and the small fish are going to eat the invertebrates.”
With the successful first outing, Keep Gilmer Beautiful plans to make the Christmas tree recycling, which was presented under Keep Georgia Beautiful’s Bring One For the Chipper program, a recurring, annual event.
“It was so good to see that our community cares about recycling and will be glad to take the time to bring their Christmas trees back for recycling instead of just throwing them away,” said Vitelli.