FISHing for Habitat

Photo By Trisha Dorsey | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Smithville Lake staff and volunteers push a weighted brush pile from the Habitat Barge into the lake, splashing into a strategically planned location.  

SMITHVILLE, MO, UNITED STATES

03.26.2016

Story by Trisha Dorsey 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District

Initiated in 2012, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Smithville Lake teamed up with the Missouri Department of Conservation, Clay County Parks, Recreation and Historic Sites and several local volunteers to spend a day on the lake strategically placing brush piles for fish habitat, suitably called Friends Improving Smithville Habitat, or FISH Day.

Despite the bitter cold March temperatures in the 30’s this year and immense high winds, the event generated approximately 16 volunteers and several agency staff to support habitat efforts.

Volunteer Gary Burton of Smithville, Mo. owns the local bait and tackle store and is an advocate for the lake and the recreation opportunities it provides. His customers rely on his lake knowledge and fishing expertise and the Corps appreciates the local feedback too.

“The Corps doesn’t have to care about fishing and fish population, but they do,” says Burton.

To provide new and better habitat, different locations are planned and focused on each year to expand opportunities for the fish. With over 7,000 acres of water, how does this group strategically pinpoint their next area of focus?

“When picking a spot, you have to have to start with road access. The Corps has to bring in large, heavy equipment to cut and load trees for habitat,” explains Burton.

“In addition to choosing a location with lake access and deep water near the shoreline, we like to identify overgrown areas which need to be cleared or fields which are enrolled in our agriculture lease program,” states Derek Dorsey, Smithville Lake park manager. “Once the land is cleared we can re-utilize the location to plant food plots for wildlife management.”

A few days before the annual event kicks off, Corps staff cuts 75 to 100 trees from the planned area. These are usually hardwood trees such as shingle oaks, hedge and cedar trees that range from 15 to 40 feet tall. On the big day, the large trees are loaded onto barges using a skid loader. From the barge, agency staff and volunteers tie heavy concrete weights to the trees, position the boat over a prime location, then push the load off the front, sinking the trees into the lake. Trees splashing into the water and cheers from the volunteers are prominent sounds heard on FISH Day. Finally, GPS coordinates are used to mark the brush pile location and track their efforts.

“Fish swim into coves and shallow spots in the spring to spawn. This new habitat helps them spawn and the little ones to feed and hide for cover, ultimately helping the fish population. By hiding inside the brush, they have a better survival chance than behind a tree stump,” explains Burton.

To date, this collaborative FISH group has installed over 660 brush piles which serve as cover for fish, four concrete fish structures, 27 rock piles and 600 hinge cut trees (at the water's edge) to create additional fish habitat. Fishermen benefit from these actions too. The GPS coordinates marked for each brush pile are compiled into maps and shared with the volunteers and posted to Smithville Lake’s website.

“This project seems to be working which gives us encouragement to expand and do more,” stated Burton. “The Corps provides a tremendous amount of resources (equipment, time and man hours) into fish habitat. It’s a pretty rare day at the bait shop if I don’t give out the lake coordinates where we’ve placed this habitat,” says Burton.

And he’s right as several agencies and resources are involved. Through this collaborative teamwork and due to high visibility of this program, funding grants have been made possible to continue the successes this group has laid forward. As agencies and volunteers continue to notice improvements in the overall habitat at Smithville Lake, the Corps plans to continue to look for support and resources for future projects.

“To continue these amazing efforts, we often apply for partnered grants to help leverage funding and supplies for fish habitat and shoreline stabilization,” explains Dorsey. “We have received four grants for a total of $95,000 since initiating our FISH efforts in 2012. Two were U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Reservoir Fishery Habitat Partnerships Grants and two were U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Handshake Grants.”

Natural resource management efforts were underway before these grants, but with these partnerships in place the Corps has been able to take efforts to another level of improving habitat at Smithville Lake.
“We look forward to this annual event,” says Dorsey. “FISH Day wouldn’t be possible without the large group of dedicated volunteers and other agencies that help out. We will continue looking for grant opportunities and ways to expand our partnerships for future improvement projects.”

• Date Taken: 03.26.2016
• Date Posted: 06.16.2016 09:42
• Story ID: 201340
• Location: SMITHVILLE, MO, US
• Hometown: SMITHVILLE, MO, US