A recently completed project at a Greene County park is propelling benefits in a couple of areas.

Spring Lake Park Ranger Joe Allen was approached by Avery Arthur, who is in the scouts and needed a community service project to achieve the highest rank possible of Eagle Scout. Allen describes this project as something that is planned and developed that will benefit the local community, while also demonstrating the scout’s leadership skills by applying their character, citizenship and values in their everyday life.

Allen says they decided the project would be to build fish huts for Spring Lake Park as a way to provide a habitat for deeper water fish, such as crappie, bass, and bluegills and to attract these fish species to improve the fishing experience for people who want to fish at the park. These structures were made with recyclable materials of tying together wooden pallets and construction pex with steel wire and are held down by cinder blocks. Arthur also had a volunteer day with the scout troop from Waukee that he led to build the 12 fish huts.

Allen notes that the Greene County Conservation Board is wanting to improve fishing at the park and this project is a step in that direction. Anyone who wants to know the location of the huts can ask the conservation staff, along with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources using GPS to aid in finding those areas.