Wildlife Draws the Short Stick at Conroe Again

Habitat is again under attack on Lake Conroe, and those responsible have little regard for fish, wildlife, or public safety. A group of local anglers have discovered some large areas of standing timber that have been recklessly removed by yet unidentified individuals in Live Branch on the South end of the lake. There are some videos posted on the Fishing Across Texas forum which you can view here. http://www.fishingacrosstx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7368

TPWD District Biologist Mark Webb surveyed the lake, and here is his report.

"While on the water today we investigated reports of stumps being cut in Live Branch in the south end of the lake.  With the exception of 3 small stumps at the mouth of Live Branch in open water the Richardson's contractors were not operating in Live Branch.  What we found was that some person or persons cut a large area of timber off at or near the water line from the middle of Live Branch to further back in the cove.  The cutting appears to have been done with a chainsaw from a boat.  Again, this cutting was not done by the Richardson's contractors nor was it approved by TPWD or SJRA.  SJRA is investigating to try to determine who is responsible.  We don't have an accurate count of the trees damaged yet but it is certainly a significant number!  If you know of anyone who witnessed this cutting or witnessed cutting in other areas of the reservoir besides what was done by the Richardson's contractors (Stump Busters stump cutting barge or Deep Six stump cutting divers) please let me or Blake know."

Members of the Fishing Across Texas Forum attended the SJRA Board meeting and testified before their commission. You can listen to that portion of the meeting here.
SJRA Recording.wmv - YouTube

It is great to see anglers standing up to fight for their home lake. The individuals who took it upon themselves to destroy habitat on a public body of water without authority from SJRA or TPWD need to be brought to justice. By cutting the stumps off at the waterline, they are threatening public safety and could potentially be held responsible should an accident occur.

SJRA needs to ultimately develop a stump removal policy which maintains a balance between protecting habitat and public safety. I encourage the SJRA to adopt a policy similar to the one recently implemented by the Guadelupe-Blanco River Authority which can be found here.
http://www.gbra.org/documents/lakemanagement/StumpRemovalGuidelines.pdf

If anyone has any information as to the identitiy of those responsible for the stump cutting in Live Branch on Lake Conroe, please contact SJRA.

The Stumpy Stumps of Lake Dunlap

If it seems like I have a lot of stump stories on my new blog, it is not by coincidence. In Texas we have a lot of lakes which have been hit hard by the drought leaving lakes low and the timber which is normally well under water in plain view. I have received reports from all over Texas reporting incidence of trees and habitat being removed by lake front property owners. Currently river authorities and resource managers across Texas have different policies regarding tree removal, and we are working with TPWD to implement a more reasonable and uniform policy across the state to protect habitat.

Lake Dunlap's story started not as the result of drought, but rather a scheduled draw down to make repairs to the dam. Lake Dunlap is a 410 acre river lake located between New Braunfels and Seguin on the Guadalupe River. (MAP). Carl Adkins who serves as the Water Policy Coordinator for the Texas B.A.S.S. Federation Nation was tipped off by a friend that a group of  Preserve Lake Dunlap Association members were pushing to have large areas of timber cut in the lakes lower end to improve the area for skiing. Carl reached out to TPWD district biologist John Findeisen and director of research and management Dave Terre making them aware of the plans. TPWD contacted the river authority GBRA and a meeting was established which allowed all parties to discuss the project. A series of trips to the lake were made by boat with anglers and lake association members on board along with TPWD and GBRA to identify areas which would be left alone and marked. Stumps which posed navigational hazards were also identified for removal. The project was shaping up to be a textbook example of how anglers can get involved with resource managers and other lake users and work together to meet the needs of each group. Unfortunately things did not turn out quite as planned.
On a rainy day in December just days after work had been completed by GBRA cutting and marking the identified areas, individual property owners took it upon themselves to modify the plan, and with 3 boats they managed to cut 80 or more stumps at the water level which at the time was 3 1/2' below normal pool.  The brazen actions of these individuals created a public safety issue and once GBRA became aware of the work of these individuals they took immediate action to close the lake to all boats and prevented more habitat destruction. (GBRA emergency directive)
The Texas B.A.S.S. Federation Nation has since been working with TPWD and GBRA pushing for mitigation by these individuals for the habitat loss as well as developing a plan which will limit skiing in this area given the newly cut stumps which are now at an unsafe depth below the surface for skiing. I will keep you posted as to how this develops.