---
title: "Kentucky sank 1,700 used Christmas trees in one 92-acre lake to give fish new places to hide"
url: https://badiyaa.com/kentucky-christmas-trees-boltz-lake-fish-habitat/
published: 2026-10-21T03:03:00+01:00
modified: 2026-10-20T19:00:31+01:00
section: Pets & Animals
publisher: Badiyaa
---

# Kentucky sank 1,700 used Christmas trees in one 92-acre lake to give fish new places to hide

Residents donated about 5,000 trees last winter; the state anchors them underwater in clusters and posts the GPS points so anglers can find them.

About 1,700 used Christmas trees now sit on the bottom of Boltz Lake, a [92-acre reservoir in Grant County, Kentucky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltz_Lake), placed there earlier this year by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to rebuild cover for fish. They were part of roughly 5,000 trees that residents handed over after the holidays, in a program the agency calls “Christmas for the Fishes.” The story has been circulating again this week, but the trees went into the water last winter and spring; the ninth season of the program wrapped up in late March 2026.

## Why a lake needs dead trees

Most of Kentucky’s lakes are man-made, and many are now more than 60 years old. “A lot of these lakes were built in the late ’50s and early ’60s, so a lot of the habitat breaks down over time,” program coordinator David Baker said in an interview this spring. When the original submerged timber and brush rot away, small fish lose the tangles where they hide from predators, and the bigger fish that hunt them have less reason to stay.

A cut evergreen is a cheap stand-in for that lost structure. Crews anchor each tree to a weight and sink it at various depths, grouping them in clusters so the branches form dense cover with small pockets inside. Young fish shelter in those gaps, sport fish patrol the edges, and the department says the clusters also help invertebrates that feed the food web. Spencer Phillips, a fish habitat biologist with the department, said the trees essentially create “nice, safe spaces” for smaller fish, which in turn draw the larger species anglers want.

## The numbers, worked out

- **One lake took about a third of the haul:** 1,700 of roughly 5,000 trees is 34%.

- **Density at Boltz Lake:** 1,700 trees across 92 acres is about 18 trees per acre, or roughly one tree for every 2,400 square feet of lake surface (about 220 square meters).

- **The rotation:** each lake on the list gets a fresh drop about every five to six years, so a lake treated in 2026 would next be due around 2031 or 2032.

- **The program’s age:** a ninth season ending in spring 2026 puts the first collection in the winter of 2017 to 2018.

## Why anglers watch where the trees go

The department records the location of every cluster and publishes the GPS coordinates on its “Lakes with Fish Attractors” page and in its FishBoatKY app, so the sunken trees double as mapped fishing spots. Baker said anglers load the points into their fish finders and catch “a lot of” crappie, bluegill and bass around them. The agency itself runs on hunting and fishing license sales, boat registrations and related grants.

Kentucky is not alone: the lead photo shows a Virginia crew with donated trees beside Claytor Lake, gathered for the same purpose. The same logic, on a vastly bigger scale, is behind turning a retired ocean liner into an artificial reef, which Badiyaa covered in our piece on the [SS United States sinking off Destin, Florida](https://badiyaa.com/ss-united-states-sinking-november-okaloosa-reef/).

## How to donate your tree this year

If you live in Kentucky, keep your tree bare. Last season the agency accepted only real, natural trees with every light, garland strand, tinsel piece and ornament removed, and it turned away wreaths, cut limbs, brush and artificial trees. Drop-off ran from December 26 to January 16 at 37 sites around the state. For this winter’s dates and drop-off sites, the department’s information line is 1-800-858-1549, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern.

## Further reading

- [Wikipedia: Boltz Lake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltz_Lake)

*Image: vastateparksstaff, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons*

*This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*