Keep Bartow Beautiful Still Needs Your Christmas Trees

Organizers with Keep Bartow Beautiful are hoping Cartersville and county residents will continue to drop off their undecorated Christmas trees that will be recycled to help the environment.

Missy Phillips, Keep Bartow Beautiful director of programs, said the agency has collected about 80 trees so far at one of 11-drop off locations throughout the county. The county typically gets just under 1,000 trees each year from the initiative, Phillips added.

Those trees are chipped and used to improve the fish habitat at Allatoona Lake and towards other projects that requires the use of mulch.

On Monday, Jan. 5, Keep Bartow Beautiful will join forces with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a local Boy Scout group and Bassmasters organization to use some of the trees to restore the fish habitat at the lake.

The Corps also has six locations where residents can drop off their undecorated Christmas trees: Victoria Day Use in Woodstock; Galt’s Day Use in Acworth; Sweetwater Campground overflow parking area in Canton; Payne Boat Ramp in Acworth; Blockhouse 1 (behind Paw Paw’s Convenience Store) fishing jetty in Acworth; and Bethany Bridge fishing jetty parking area in Cartersville.

All drop-off sites will be marked with flagging tape. The trees collected will be utilized as part of the fish habitat improvement program, a partnership between federal, state and local governments, as well as several group organizations and businesses.

Phillips said the agency is seeking volunteers to help with replenishing the Red Top Mountain State Park site. Volunteers will be tasked with drilling holes in the bases of Christmas trees. Those trees are group in clusters of four to six and placed in low-lying areas to attract fish.

Anyone interested in the project can contact Phillips at (770) 383 7399 or phillipsm@bartowga.org.

Photo credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District Allatoona Lake’s Facebook page.