Old Christmas trees provide fish habitat

LAKE WEDOWEE–Lots of fish in Lake Wedowee are rockin’ around
the Christmas trees this week after 280 trees were installed as
habitat for them.

On Monday volunteers with Lake Wedowee Property Owners Association
(LWPOA) and the Wedowee Boy Scouts assisted representatives from
Alabama Power Company in installing the trees in the lake to be
used as habitat for fish.

Members of Lake Wedowee Property Owners Association collected trees
in Wedowee, Roanoke and Carrollton, Ga., and brought them to the
APC land office on Lake Wedowee. Randolph County Concrete also
assisted by allowing trees to be dropped off at their
business.

Mike Clelland and Doug Powell of APC instructed the volunteers on
how to tie ropes to the trees to secure cement blocks. The trees
were installed in bundles of four and in groups of five bundles per
location around the lake.

GPS coordinates of the fish habitats were taken and will be posted
for fishermen at http://www.alabamapower.com/fishdata. Powell said
to check the website in late April or early May for the
coordinates.

The is the second time Christmas trees have been installed in Lake
Wedowee, but the practice has gone on at other APC lakes for many
years. Members of LWPOA hope to make it an annual occurrence.

Powell noted that it’s great for the fish because it gives them a
habitat and it’s great for the fisherman because it provides them a
great location for fish. Sheila Smith of APC also noted that it
recycled all those trees and kept them out of our landfills this
season.