Quote Originally Posted by smashdn View Post
Adam, any thoughts on replanting/restoring the buck willows that used to ring every island and back of the bays? Some bays had acres of it in the backs. I know that the survival/proliferation has a lot to do with water level and timing of water on them.

I did see where some cypress trees were planted in a cove or two. Any plan to get some cypress out on the main lake islands (or rip rap) to help hold them? Cormorants seem to be killing off the vegetation that holds them in place.
There was an old TVA study which showed that the button bushes (buck brush) could not survive if their root crowns were underwater for too many days. The current and best theory for why the button bushes have died back is that when the drawdown schedule was changed in 1980, it left too much water on the button bushes in the summer. In 1980, the drawdown was changed from a june 15 start date to a july 5th start date to allow more water for boaters on 4th of july weekend. I am not aware of anyone who predicted the negative consequences, but it certainly seems like it has caused the bushes to die back to an elevation of 358 or so instead of extending out to 357 or more. Additionally, the initial water level schedule for kentucky lake in the 40's and 50's likely helped out a lot with getting those bushed established. Back then they used to drop the water level a lot more erratically during the spring and summer to kill mosquitoes in an effort to control malaria. When malaria was no longer a problem here, they switched to more stable water levels. planting more bushes is very unlikely to help since it killed the ones growing there naturally.

The department has indeed been planting some cypress trees. This is because they can survive in deeper water than the button bushes and still provides good cover for fish spawning and juvenile fish. (if the redear are spawning I would not pass up an opportunity to cast the base of a cypress tree). TVA helped us out with a 5,000 dollar grant which we used to create a growing system and purchase trunk guards and fertilizer. By growing the trees out to 5 feet or so we get better survival. Our current schedule is to plant about 1,000 in ky lake each year. The Corps of engineers also got a grant for us on barkley this year that includes planting 1000 cypress trees. So far we have planted them in several coves and we have pretty good survival.

We were able to do some work on the patterson islands several years ago with some mitigation funding. That funding allowed the rip rapping of several islands and has stabilized the shoreline there. We have also planted some cypress trees on the back side of those rip rap sections to further stabilize it. Unfortunately that type of work is expensive and we have no current plans to do more of it. It may or may not surprise you to learn that our local fisheries habitat budget is only 3,500 dollars a year, which unfortunately doesn't buy a lot of rock. However, there are always opportunities for funding here and there.
Cormorants do have a negative impact on the trees due to the acidity in their feces. This has turned some tree islands in other lakes into grass islands. Its an unfortunate problem without an easy solution due to their listing on the international migratory bird treaty. The control of cormorants is all done through a permitting process within the federal government so this isn't a situation where the states can act independently. I have mixed opinions about whether just planting trees on the islands would help. If there is a strong erosional force from the current it is unlikely that young new trees will succeed when old and well established trees failed.