Each winter, we offer our Treecycle Program that allows local residents to drop off Christmas trees at Lake of the Woods, Middle Fork River Forest Preserve, or Homer Lake Forest Preserve after the holiday season. Although some of the trees are chipped for mulch, most of them are used as artificial habitat, or fish structure, for numerous aquatic species, especially fish. The trees provide protection, food and shade for young fish. In contrast they also provide great ambush points for predatory fish such as the Large Mouth Bass. The structures are hotspots for breeding and spawning. These simple Christmas trees create small ecosystems within the large ecosystem of the lake.
Doesn’t the lake already have natural structures the fish would use instead of Christmas trees? Most lakes and rivers have some natural habitat already in place, like logs and live plants. However, all of our lakes are man-made. Small man-made lakes lack structure when they are built. In the case of Sunset and Shadow Lakes at River Bend, it was necessary to have lakes without excess structure in order to correctly mine the area with a floating dredge. Without some sort of fish structure being added to the lake, young fish, or fry, would not survive due to the ease of predation by adult fish.
The process we use for placing the Christmas trees is relatively simple. We drill a hole through the stump of the tree and attach a brick using a length of rope. This allows the tree to sink to our desired depth. We place the trees at different depths to accommodate different species of fish (shallower for pan-fish species like bluegill and crappie and deeper for channel catfish and bullhead). This is an easy and inexpensive way to create vital habitat in your own pond or lake.
Christmas trees are just one way to create fish structure. We also have teamed up with the local Izaak Walton League Chapter to create habitat. www.iwla.org/champaigncounty The chapter has constructed numerous structures made from scrap piping and plastic mesh to create an imitation habitat that fish use for protection and spawning beds.
Hopefully this helps you understand why putting fish structure into a lake is important. It helps keep the balance between young fish and the species that prey upon them. This balance creates a successful fishery for anglers of all ages for years to come. Our success would not be possible without the help from the community through donating used Christmas trees and the help from organizations like the Izaak Walton League.
If you are interested in knowing specific spots where we have placed these structures, you may view these maps showing the locations of both Christmas trees and the Izaak Walton fish structures:
Lake of the Woods Fish Structure Map 2007
River Bend Fish Structure Map 2007
River Bend Fish Structure Map 2008
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