Old Christmas trees overboard for fish habitat

There were about 375 recycled Christmas trees picked clean of tinsel, adorned with a sandbag and tossed into the lake Thursday. The trees are a gift to the native and game fish that populate Lake Havasu — a practical gift.

The trees will be used to create the necessary but constantly dwindling fish habitat under the lake’s surface.

“It makes a really good habitat for fish. Better habitat, better fish,” said six-year program volunteer Coy Aton, of Havasu. Aton worked assembly-line-style alongside one-year program volunteer George Pasos to fill sandbags.

Each tree is weighted with a biodegradable sand bag that will disintegrate over time, leaving a berm behind, according to Bureau of Land Management Project Manager Kirk Koch. Koch oversees the Lake Havasu Fisheries Improvement Project that is headed by BLM and said the program is about 20 years old.

There are seven partner agencies that work together in order for the project to be successful, he said. The participating agencies also include Anglers United of Lake Havasu, Bureau of Reclamation, United States Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Game and Fish Department and California Fish and Game Department.

Koch said in years past, there were as many as 500 trees donated to the program for the cause.

About four of five loads of trees will be transported by large, flat barge-type boats and dumped in some of the 42 coves off the shores of Lake Havsu that are linked to the project, according to earlier reports.

You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.