Once the most wonderful time of the year winds down for the season, consider donating your live Christmas tree to the Lake Auman Sports Club. The club will gladly take your tree and give it new life as an underwater fish habitat.
For the twenty-fourth consecutive year, volunteers from the Lake Auman Sports Club (LASC) will be putting in their time and efforts to create fish habitats under docks around Lake Auman.
Last year, the sports club amassed a total of fifty-eight donated trees, which were distributed beneath the docks of twenty-nine lake front homes. The trees were delivered to participating lots and prepared for placement under the docks thanks to the efforts of volunteers both on land and in the water.
LASC has been impressed by the generous response from both community members and local businesses in the past few years.
Last year, Randy Saunders, owner of the Seven Lakes Ace Hardware store, donated his inventory of this season’s unsold trees to the Sports Club.
In 2019, several homeowners who had volunteered their docks previous years were turned as there was no more room under their docks for additional trees.
The Christmas trees provide the lake’s smaller fish with natural habitats and protective cover that allow them to evade larger predators. Providing the fish with a safe place to live allows them to feed and breed safely, which results in an overall higher population of fish in the lake.
The trees are weighed down with bricks and placed under docks. These habitats are more than just a home for the fish: the buildup of algae and sediment provides food for the fish, as well.
Feeding the fish is an added bonus to skipping the landfill or woodchipper this holiday season.
“In addition to the benefits to the health of our lake and what it does for our fish population, the best part of this program is the support I receive every year from the Lake Auman Sports Club membership, especially the volunteers, without them this program could not be accomplished,” stated Don Smith.
If you would like to donate your tree to become a fish habitat, please contact the Lake Auman Sports Club at 910-673-1618 or email DonBSmith@gmail.com.
