Thread: Smithville Concerns

Sorry Guys, I have been away from the site for a few daysand it looks like there has been some good discussion about the Smithvilleconcerns. I will try to address all the topics everyone has had in one post.

First of all I brought up that Smithville was designed as a flood control lakeand was designed to have a functional life span of 50 yrs. This does not meanthat the lake is going to be completely filled in with silt in in 50 yrs. Thismeans that with the amount of siltation entering the basin every year, that in50 years the lake will lose enough water storage capacity to no longer functionas it was designed as a flood control lake. The lake will still exist and willstill function as a recreational lake but it simply loses its functionality forflood control. Think of it this way, if the same amount of water is enteringthe lake every year but the lake continues to get smaller every year due to thesiltation then the lake simply will not hold as much water as it did the yearbefore and so on and so on.

What have we learned about the failed efforts to reestablish vegetation back inthe lake? Well we learned that aquatic plants cannot sustain the water level fluctuationsof Smithville Lake. Although Smithville does not experience the extremefluctuations that we see in other large reservoir in the state, they are enoughto stress out the plants that they don't survive. Sometimes the cages wereflooded in the spring and completely dry in the winter. And as you are allaware it is impossible to predict the weather in Missouri from year to year, drought,flood, flood drought...Smithville is sorely lacking in shallow water habitatand we all know the importance that vegetation plays on the size and quality ofthe fish in the fishery and that is why MDC took on such a large scale effort.

Zebra mussels have been documented to increase the water clarity in lakes. Theyfilter the plankton out of the water but will not help with the siltationissues we have on Smithville. Clearer water will allow for the sunlight to penetratefurther into the water column allowing for more aquatic plant growth but thezebra mussels filter so much nutrients and food from the system that theproductivity of the lake goes way down and the fishery usually suffers.

I couldn't have answered sevenfiftynine's questions any better than Vic did. Iwill add one thing; he is correct in stating that there are programs and grantsavailable for large reservoirs around the nation that concerned citizens canlead and accomplish great things. It is called the Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Partnership(RFHP). Through this organization you can start a Friends of Reservoirs (FOR)for Smithville Lake. In fact the last major habitat project on Smithville tookplace because of one of a RFHP grants, to the tune of $200K. I think that themembers of Crappie.com that call Smithville Lake their home would be a greatgroup of guys and gals to step up and start an FOR for Smithville Lake. Pleasecontact me if anyone is interested in starting one of these for Smithville.Check out what other groups around the Nation have done for their lakes on theinternet. It is truly amazing.

Originally Posted by vic n

Thanks for the response, Eric. FOR is exactly what I was referring to, and I'm convinced that if even a few of us CDC'ers could work together, we could get this thing going. We can all see what is happening to the lake, and I think now is the time to get started to stop any damage we can.

Vic

Was just reading this and if there is anything I can do to help - holler