Sikeston program recycles live Christmas trees for fish habitat

Billy Hammon holds a stake in place as Chuck Bolen uses a hammer to prepare the fencing for Sikeston's Christmas Tree Collection Program. Beginning Residents can bring their trees to the collection site, located on Airport Drive just north of the Chamber of Commerce building. (Jill Bock/Standard Democrat) [Click to enlarge]

Beginning Christmas Day and continuing through Jan. 6, the Sikeston Park Division is offering local residents who decorate with live Christmas trees the opportunity to take part in the annual Christmas Tree Collection Program. Real Christmas trees can be taken to the designated collection site on Airport Drive north of the Chamber of Commerce building.

By "recycling" their real Christmas trees, residents can improve fish habitat in the city's lakes in the Recreation Complex and R.S. Matthews Park, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Lake Wappapello, which ultimately will improve the fishing in those lakes, according to Jiggs Moore with the Sikeston Parks Division.

On Jan. 7, Park Division employees will load a portion of the trees collected on to a trailer provided by Pullen Brothers Inc. for transport to the Corps of Engineers at Lake Wappapello. The remainder of the trees will be taken to the City's two lakes where they will be bundled in small groups to be submerged in the lakes for fish shelters.

The fish shelter program affords an opportunity to dispose of the trees in an ecologically sound manner, and at the same time enhance fishing opportunities for fishermen at the local lakes. The shelters created by the submerged bundles of Christmas trees provide fish with breeding areas and resting places. They also provide young fish safe living space where they can feed without being preyed upon by larger fish.

"With this protective environment, fish have a better chance to grow to maturity and provide a good fishing experience for anglers," said Moore.

New trees are added to selected shelters each year to maintain their usefulness as cover.