DVIDS – News – Sunken treasure: Fish Attractor Program at Pomme de Terre Lake benefits environment and recreationists.

On an unseasonably warm day in February, the sun was shining and there was barely a cloud in the sky. Staff at Pomme de Terre Lake, along with staff from the Missouri Department of Conservation, are hard at work. The task? Sinking piles of cedar trees into the lake to create habitat for fish.

Attracting anglers from across the state and region, Pomme de Terre Lake’s partnership with the MDC is vital to maintaining healthy fish populations. For the past 32 years, the Kansas City District, US Army Corps of Engineers and MDC have worked together to provide habitat for fish in Pomme de Terre Lake through its Fish Attractor Program.

Every year in January or February, the USACE and MDC work together to cut down cedar trees, anchor them to concrete blocks and submerge them in water to create fish habitats. There are approximately 400 cedar tree brush piles submerged in Pomme de Terre Lake.

According to MDC, each brush pile lasts about ten to 12 years. So, every eight to ten years, the team will add new brush to existing brush piles, mapped via GPS, in addition to creating about 40 to 50 new piles each year. All of this takes about a week, but the program has long-term benefits for the environment and recreationists.

Small but mighty

Located in southwest Missouri, Pomme de Terre Lake is not as wide as some of its neighboring lakes such as Harry S. Truman Lake, Stockton Lake and Lake of the Ozarks. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in popularity. The lake may be relatively small as far as Missouri lakes go, but it boasts more than a million visitors annually. Many of these visitors are avid fishermen, enjoying the abundance of fish found in the waters of Pomme de Terre Lake.

“We’re small compared to the surrounding lakes in land area, but we get over a million visitors a year,” said Shannon Henry, natural resource manager at Pomme de Terre Lake. “The whole purpose [of the Fish Attractor Program] is to provide habitat for fish … so they can grow and sustain the fish populations that MDC manages here.”

The USACE owns and operates Pomme de Terre Lake, while the MDC manages the fish population through sampling, stocking and enforcement of fishing regulations. Submerging cedar trees in water to create fish habitat may sound strange or unusual, but there is a strategy behind the technique.

“The benefit of these [cedar tree] brush piles are twofold,” said Craig Fuller, MDC fisheries biologist. “One, it concentrates fish and provides a place for anglers to target and fish and two, the habitat that we put in is relatively shallow and provides a place for the fish to enter and hide from predators, but it also provides food. source of young fish.”

According to Fuller, the cedar tree piles attract small fish, which attract big fish, which attract anglers who travel near and far to fish Pomme de Terre Lake.

Growing appreciation

Using cedar trees to create fish habitats also has benefits above water. According to Henry, cedar trees, while abundant in southwest Missouri, are an invasive species.

“Cedar trees can be invasive,” Henry said. “They can kill native species and if you’re trying to re-establish a glade or an open area for resource management, they’ll come in and take over.”

Every year, USACE staff at Pomme de Terre Lake identify natural resource areas around the lake that have been taken over by invasive cedar trees. They cut down the trees to clear the area so that native plants can grow again. Cedar trees are used for brush piles for the Fish Attractor Program. For lake park rangers, this is an important part of USACE’s natural resource mission.

“[MDC] providing options for the public to get out and use their natural resources and develop an appreciation for them,” said Henry. “That’s what we’re doing in our natural resource program here [USACE]so marrying that with the MDC and what opportunities they provide to the public is important.”

The Fish Attractor Program at Pomme de Terre Lake is an example of the impact an interagency partnership can have, benefiting the land, wildlife and the public for the past 32 years, and many more to come.

“It’s just a way to give back to the taxpayers,” Henry said. “We are the stewards of their money and land [so we are] giving them options to fish, hunt and recreate in a wonderful part of Missouri.”