3500 ain't much. That's for both lakes or the whole of the western fisheries area? Either way that is spreading it mighty thin.

I've been spending a fair amount of time on Old Hickory in TN. It has a serious cormorant problem as well and because of that the islands and certain shore areas are damaged due to dying trees. I don't want to see KY and Barkley get to that point if it can be helped. Not to mention they are hard on the fish.

Where are you guys getting the cypress and how are you growing them out to 5'? I attempted to transplant a few that were about 18" tall and they had about a 4' tap root on them. They didn't survive.