New Program At Table Rock/taneycomo

[pjn765]

Anyone else read this? What are speculations on impact?

Fish population to thrive with project

Cedar trees sunk in Table Rock Lake will serve as habitat for aquatic species.

Kathleen O'Dell

News-Leader

A barge-load of downed cedar trees was sent to the bottom of a Table Rock Lake cove Thursday, launching a $4.5 million effort to restore fish habitats and fish populations there.

The ceremonial sinking near Big Cedar Lodge helped create the first of many fish habitats under the "More Fish Campaign," part of the 2006 National Fish Habitat Action Plan.

The goal is to restore diminishing fish and other aquatic populations, but also to preserve a recreational economy that generates, conservatively, $67 million annually between Table Rock and Lake Taneycomo, said Matt Mauck, a fisheries biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.

The United States has lost 20 percent of its fish and aquatic populations and nearly 40 percent of the nation's native fish species are in decline, said Martin Mac Donald, with Bass Pro Shops. The top contributing factor is the "aging" of reservoirs like Table Rock Lake, which means underwater trees and shrubs decay and fish lose their cover, Mac Donald said.

In 2006 the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation joined federal and state agencies, conservation and angling organizations, and Bass Pro Shops to establish the National Fish Habitat Action Plan to help reverse the decline.

Along with the plan, and with Bass Pro Shops as the first corporate sponsor, the fish and wildlife foundation launched the More Fish Campaign to help raise awareness and funding to protect, enhance and restore abundant and healthy populations of fish and aquatic species to our nation's waters.

Table Rock Lake is the first chosen for the pilot project focused on reservoir habitats and the health of their watersheds. If successful, it could serve as a model for other reservoirs across the country.

To begin, fisheries biologists and builders at Tracker Marine in Lebanon designed and built a pontoon-style Fish Habitat Barge with a hydraulic lift that can easily dump loads of trees, stumps or gravel into areas of the lake designated for fish habitats or spawning beds.

The 30-foot custom pontoon and trailer cost about $62,000, and will be used over the next five years to restore fish habitats throughout Table Rock, said fisheries biologist Shane Bush. He will operate the barge. Two older-model barges are used in Arkansas and Missouri.

Trees, shrubs and gravel will come from materials cleared or thinned from construction sites or nearby forests, Mac Donald said.

Bass Pro Shops has committed $1.5 million over the next five years which will be matched 2-to-1 by the following agencies: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and its partners including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Missouri Department of Conservation, and Arkansas Fish and Game Commission. That will make the project's total $4.5 million.

Another $2 million of Bass Pro Shops and wildlife foundation funds will help fish habitat projects nationwide.

Partners in the pilot project on Table Rock include Bass Pro Shops, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Forest Service.

How the money will be spent

The $4.5 million to fund the National Fish Habitat Action Plan will go toward a variety of projects over the next five years including:

Operation of the Fish Habitat Barge and a full-time fisheries biologist and staff to collect and place brush piles, stumps and rocks to create underwater fish habitats and rock reef spawning beds.

Hauler contracts to collect discarded trees and natural materials to create fish habitats.

Cost-share projects with private landowners to help restore eroding stream banks on the James River and other waterways flowing into Table Rock Lake.

Financial help for the septic pumpout program operated by the James River Basin Partnership and Table Rock Lake Water Quality within the Table Rock watershed.

A contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority to study the feasibility of installing a four-bay oxygen diffuser at Table Rock Dam.

The equipment, if added, would boost oxygen levels of water flowing into Lake Taneycomo to benefit food sources for and the health of fish.

For more information on the Table Rock project, go to morefish.org.

linked from here: http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...EWS01/710120424

peace

john nickle

[skeeter]

Sounds like great news to me but here's hoping they don't sink them all in the "middle" of coves as the fry of the year need cover to hide and grow in. That's an excellent use of those danged old nasty tick hotels called Eastern Red Cedars that take over seemingly everywhere. More power to them and I hope they cut down more Cedars and uncover the glade environment that MDC has stated is disappearing due to shade cast by overpopulation of Cedars.

There used to be a program wherein the Corps brought discarded Christmas trees to the COE campground areas in January/February and lot's of us would gather them up and devise permanent weights for them, drag them out on flats etc. and sink 'em. However, Eastern Red Cedars are known to last much longer in an underwater environment than typical Christmas tree species so bring 'em on. We always believed that if you sank a cedar that was still green it was an immediate Crappie magnet.

Hope they make their way up to mid-lake some year.

[Phil Lilley]

This should be interesting... I've already heard from a couple guides who think trees offer little value to a fishery. But I'll let them sound off on the subject.

[captmac]

I would think that on a lake where cover is at a premium at best this would be a good idea, but as the devil's advocate it is the government doing this.

[WebFreeman]

I always thought cedars didn't make good fish habitat. Someone about the way they decompose or their chemistry doesn't promote microbiotic growth. We need some our fisheries biology majors to chime here.

[denjac]

I think Table Rock still has plenty of cover, but having more isn't bad. Just one more brush pile to run too.

[Danoinark]

I like that O2 diffuser idea for the dam though....Dan

[crappiefisherman]

crappie thrive around cedars, maybe not fresh, but after down awhile.I also think larger then christmas tree sizes are needed.There are lots of cedars left that the wood cutters havent got that would be nice,also the christmas tree size trees tend to move around easily in current, even after concrete blocks are on them, they only last a short while

[Bill Babler]

Big Meeting about this on Oct. 16th. Myself and a couple of the other guides have been invited, to voice our thoughts on the appropreation.

Government money that has been designated for this project and this alone.

Our comments at this point.

BIG SHOW NO GO. WORTHLESS AND A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.!!!!!

Table Rock is absolutely loaded with submerged structure. It holds fish from time to time, but most is of no use.

I know guides that have sunk piles in huge numbers and for the most part 1 out of a hundred hold fish.

This is not a Largemouth Lake and will never be again, no matter what they do. It is just an age thing.

The bass that are in Table Rock are not ambush feeder for the most part, they are chasers and grazers and structure is secondary to shad and crayfish.

We have completely taken some of our best spots out of production, by adding cover. I have a couple of spots I have treed up that used to be good, that are void of fish. Wish I would have left them alone.

I know several guides and pro-fisherman, that put piles in prior to the BASS Pro Elite a couple of years ago and I can take you to at least 50 piles that are useless.

Spoke to one head official with MDC fisheries and he said they would do the same good, if they just piled them on the bank out of the water.

Adding structure to a lake filled with structure is somewhat of a question in my mind.

Will let you know after the meeting.

[crappiefisherman]

I know what we can do, lets do our own study, have the government fund me for say 500 dollars a day and ill be a stucture specialist grade 5 for the taney county missouri fish and beer division.