If your in the Grand Lake or Hudson Lake area, have a live Christmas tree and love to fish for crappie, then GRDA has the perfect program for you.
The second annual “Crappie Christmas” is getting underway on Grand and Hudson lakes, which means it’s a great time to donate your used, live Christmas trees to a great cause. You can do that simply by taking it to one of several drop-off locations between December 26 and January 10.
By the way, “crappie” rhymes with “hoppy” and, of course, crappie is that very special type of fish that draws thousands of anglers to these waters each year. So, in an effort to make sure the crappie habitat, and thus the crappie fishing, remains healthy, the GRDA Ecosystems Management Department put this program together.
Actually, it goes hand in hand with the annual “Rush For Brush” artificial habitat program, which is a joint effort between GRDA and local volunteers. That effort has grown in popularity each year and is responsible for placing hundreds of artificial brush piles in the lakes. “Crappie Christmas” is the same concept but utilizes used, live Christmas trees that might otherwise just eventually go up in smoke.
“We’ll place all the trees we collect into Grand and Hudson lakes and the W.R. Holway Reservoir,” said GRDA Fisheries Coordinator/Tournament Director Brent Davis. “They will make good cover for the small crappie and help boost those populations in the year ahead.”
GRDA debuted the “Crappie Christmas” program last year, with one drop-off location at the old GRDA Lake Patrol parking lot, on the west end of Pensacola Dam, in Langley. This year, Davis said they have expanded to several other drop-off sites, in hopes of generating even more participation.
“The state parks are helping us this year, which is great for the program,” said Davis. “As a result, we have been able to add sites all around the lakes.”
This year, participants can drop off used trees at the Langley location, along with Wolf Creek Park boat ramp, Honey Creek State Park ramp and the Bernice State Park ramp. On Lake Hudson, participants can donate their trees by taking them to the Lions Club ramp in Salina. GRDA will be accepting trees between December 26 and January 10.
Need more information? Contact GRDA Ecosystem Management’s Jacklyn Jaggars at (918) 256 0723 or [email protected].
Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75-plus years.
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