CANYON FERRY RESERVOIR -- With a whirl and a whisk, Christmas trees became perch habitat here on Friday.

The whirl came from the Montana Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter, which whisked thousands of the Christmas trees from the banks of the reservoir and gently lowered them into the water just south of the Silos Marina.

Once submerged, their branches will allow perch to hang skeins of eggs that are fertilized by the males that swim past.

"It's really nice to be able to do something for the perch," said McLain Johnson with Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "So often everyone talks about the walleye and trout, but they forget about the perch."

Eric Roberts, a FWP fisheries technician, noted that a lot of various groups had a hand in what was jokingly being called "Operation Perch Habitat."

The city of Helena plays an integral role by stockpiling about 5,000 trees after Christmas, and hauling them to a large field near the Silos.

Using volunteers and money or materials donated from the Gallatin/Madison chapter of Walleyes Unlimited, the Townsend Chamber of Commerce and the Montana Conservation Corp, each tree had a hole drilled through the trunk and a wire cable run through it, then were grouped into about 75 bunches of trees with cinderblocks attached for weights.

Also affixed to each bundle were cinderblocks and a loop created at one end.

On Friday, Sgt. Angela Rebich crouched on the floor of the Black Hawk and used a large hook to grasp a loop at the end of each cable. The helicopter slowly rose, with a string of Christmas trees below it like a wasp on a hot summer day and flew over the reservoir.

Pilot Wes Newhall had logged in GPS coordinates given to him by Roberts, and carefully dropped each load in place -- or at least tried to.

Apparently some of the loads were a bit too heavy or too long for the cable, causing it to snap sometimes shortly after the trees left the ground to the delight and dismay of bystanders -- delight because of the cool freefall and dismay for obvious reasons.

But those were minor details, and the airlift was deemed an overall success, especially since the Christmas trees are being reused instead of being sent to the landfill or chipped, noted Ron Selden of FWP.

He added that this effort was also easier than in previous years when the trees were dragged by all-terrain vehicles during winter onto the ice, and left to sink when it melted. That took a lot of time, and with shifting ice flows, it was difficult to know where the trees would end up.

This is the second year the trees were flown over and dropped into the lake; last year, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation offered its services.

The exercise also benefits the Guard, which used Friday's airlift as a training mission. Rebich said it was similar to when they "sling load" equipment like vehicles that need to get into hard-to-reach places.

"The hook is limited to about 8,000 pounds, but due to the power on the aircraft we usually (load it) to about 4,000 to 5,000 pounds," she said. "It's also a lot like water buckets for fires, yet we're releasing the loads rather than picking them up for a fire."

Reporter Eve Byron: 447-4076 or eve.byron@helenair.com