Each winter or spring, Alabama Power Company sponsors a fish habitat program where recycled Christmas trees are bundled and sunk into the lake.  Alabama Power collects the trees and HOBO volunteers provide the manpower to tie the trees into bundles​ and then sink the bundles in strategic locations around the lake.

​The purpose of dropping the recycled trees into the lake is to help provide cover for fish and enhance a nursery habitat for juvenile fish that will often burrow deep within the trees creating a home to hide inside.

The trees are bundled into groups of four and weighted down with three 12-inch concrete blocks with a piece of foam attached to the top of one of the trees.  The foam makes the one tree stand up, the others are laying on the bottom around it.   Alabama Power and HOBO crews deliver the trees via boats, dropping them into water 12-15 feet deep.

Alabama Power started the recycling program with various lakes in Alabama in 1992 and at Lake Mitchell in 1996.  Since the program begin more than 56,000 Christmas trees have been recycled into Alabama lakes as fish habitats.
GPS COORDINATES
The coordinates of each bundle are recorded with GPS of the different sites to keep track of where we have placed the trees.   Click here for a link to the Alabama Power website where you can find the GPS coordinates for the fish habitat locations for Lake Mitchell and other Alabama Power lakes.