Hundreds of Christmas trees line the banks of Canyon Ferry near the silos. These trees are part of an important cause to protect fish populations. It takes a lot of volunteers and scouts to pull it off.
“The scouts are amazing, that's really been a game changer for us,” said Fish, Wildlife, and Parks senior fisheries technician Troy Humphrey.
Scout Troop 214 collects curbside Christmas trees each January for Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks’ "Pines for Perch" program, sinking them into Canyon Ferry to create fish‑breeding habitat.
The trees are connected by drilling a hole in the stump, threading a cable through them, and adding cinder blocks in between to keep them weighted down underwater. In April, the Montana Department of Natural Resources will drop the lines of trees by helicopter into the water below.
FWP used to head the project on its own, and say the scouts’ help saves lots of time.
“It took us the better part of a week, whereas we're gonna make about a half day of it now,” Humphrey said.
“Just them alone, this would be such a long job for them,” said scout Carson Burright. “Just having all this extra help really contributes to having a whole community work together.”
The message of community is exactly what Scoutmaster Doug Wheeler hopes his troop takes away from involvement in the project.
“Oh, I love it,” Wheeler said. “For me, community service is a huge thing to try to instill in the scouts because I think the more people that learn to find it important to help the community, the better our community is gonna be.”
“Very happy, it's a very good place to do it,” said scout Simon Jensen. “Nice breeze, treeing, it's fun.”
“I love doing it, I feel like it really benefits everybody and not just me,” said scout Kaari Hitz.
This year, the troop gathered around 1,600 trees, but officials say they’ve seen a decrease in the number of trees they usually get.
The program used to gather between 3,000 - 4,000 trees a year, but artificials have brought along challenges that could put the program at risk.
FWP says they aim to have at least a thousand or more, and encourage people to choose a more natural way to celebrate the holidays.
“We live in Montana,” Humphrey said. “Take some time and just go out and cut your own tree and get the required permits, of course, and we need your trees.”
