Rehabilitating Fishtrap Lake
BY JERRY BOGGS
SPORTS EDITOR
September 26, 2007

FISHTRAP LAKE — The debris littering the banks and coves of Fishtrap Lake has trashed its reputation.

A group of Eastern Kentucky citizens who want to clean up their lives are pitching in to rehabilitate the lake some call “trashtrap.”

WestCare, a substance abuse treatment organization, has committed to participate in maintenance and cleanup efforts once a month at the 1.131 acre lake located on the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River.

Those seeking treatment will be cutting grass, picking up garbage and helping maintain the lake.

“They love the idea of giving back to the community,” said Jesse Bowling, lead direct-care worker with WestCare. “For so long they were taking from the community.”

WestCare offers non-medical assistance in an inpatient treatment facility at Ashcamp, 15 miles from the lake. Men seeking help must remain in the facility a minimum of 90 days.

“We’re ecstatic,” said Rodney Holbrook, Fishtrap resource manager with the Corps of Engineers, which currently maintains the lake and dam. “Any help we can get is a godsend to us.”

The WestCare workers will visit Fishtrap once a month from early spring through October, Bowling said.

Fishtrap Lake will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year. The 16.5-mile waterway was built by the Corps of Engineers to help control flooding along the Levisa Fork. It has since become known for a large population of hybrid striped bass and the litter which collects along the lake bank and near the dam.

According to Holbrook, the lake has a 400-square-mile watershed extending into Virginia. While much of the debris collected by the Corps’ trash-hunting barge is natural organic material, there is a lot of trash.

“The water never stops flowing and if we’ve got water, we have garbage,” Holbrook said.

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