LEXINGTON, Ky. — State wildlife workers are using Christmas trees to help replenish marine habitats across Kentucky.
Graham Howell is a fisheries biologist with Frankfort’s Pfeiffer Fish Hatchery. He and a team of professionals are working with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife to tie live pine trees together, creating a fish habitat.
The goal is to make structures that provide sources of food and protection that can replenish the environment. Howell says these structures need maintenance every five years or so.
“For these to biodegrade to a point they would need to be replaced,” he said.
Recently, the agency hauled trees to Benjy Kinman Lake in Henry County, loaded them onto custom boats, and dropped them into the water.
It’s been nearly five years since fish habitats were added to Benjy Kinman Lake. This area has four waterways, with a four-, six- and 15-acre pond, plus the 88-acre lake.
Tree structures are also placed in other lakes around the state. Jeff Crosby, a fisheries biologist with the department, says aquatic vegetation in Kentucky’s lakes can be controlled.
“A waterfowl or deer or even, you know, the fish we want to create, provide that habitat that’s going to be beneficial to all so that they will flourish and you know, they’ll be here for, you know, decades to come,” Crosby said.
Crosby says they have collected nearly 32,000 live trees since 2011 and have dropped trees in local water-bodies in Owenton, Lexington, Richmond, Louisville and Bowling Green.