The 2026 Chipper Project was conducted on Jan. 22 & 23, 2026. The event had to be rescheduled due to rain. Lake Allatoona is a flood controlled lake, meaning the water drops to normal river flow in the winter months. This winter we have had too much rain, which has made the lake rise. The location that was selected was Bethany Bridge & Cooper’s Branch. There were 7 Army Corp Rangers and 3 Army Corp volunteers that collected, transported, and predrilled 250 trees (totaling 31 hours of volunteer time).
There were around 300 live Christmas trees recycled at our collection sites around the county. There were more Christmas trees recycled this year than the year previous. Volunteers anchored 200 trees at Bethany Bridge for fish habitats and 100 trees at Cooper’s Branch. For the workdays 20 volunteers carried and anchored 200 trees to the established rail road ties in the lakebed. There were 2 workdays to complete the project: 7 DNR staff, 11 Army Corp Ranger, 2 KBB staff, that volunteered a total of 53 hours for the 2 days.
