Aquatic plants can play a major role as a food source for aquatic invertebrates as well as juvenile and adult fish habitat Aquatic plants can improve water clarity and quality and can reduce rates of shoreline erosion, sediment resuspension and help prevent spread of nuisance exotic plants. Ageing reservoirs begin to lose a significant portion of their aquatic habitat due to siltation, eroding banks, decaying of large wood debris and poor water quality. This loss can affect the quality of the fishery, which could have detrimental economic impacts. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (Commission) has been establishing native aquatic vegetation in reservoirs for decades. In 2018, a smallscale aquatic plant nursery was constructed at our facility in Mebane, NC to address increasing demand. While this nursery has expanded our capabilities, we are currently limited to a production capacity of 3,500 plants annually, and we have limited capabilities to overwinter plants or maintain self-sustaining on-site sources of various plant species. The construction of a larger facility will increase plant production capability as well as provide a better capability to overwinter plants and create sustainable on-sites sources of material. An expanded nursery will also provide more space for aquatic plant research that will be used to increase the overall effectiveness of our in-reservoir habitat enhancement projects.

Develop a hypolimnetic oxygenation design plan to oxygenate the Island Park Reservoir hypolimnion to 6 mg/L. Project goal is to permanently eliminate the drawdown-driven oxythermal habitat squeeze by designing, evaluating, and installing a hypolimnetic oxygenation system. A shovel-ready plan allows leveraging up to $3 million in USBR WaterSmart grants available through the Infrastructure and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act.

Lake Red Rock is the largest lake in Iowa with a surface area of 15,250 acres at conservation pool. The lake lacks adequate littoral structure. The project will increase structural habitat, improve angler opportunities and enhance the quality of the fishery in Lake Red Rock. The project will provide quality structural habitat for natural spawning, nursery locations for young fish, congregation areas for forage fish and feeding opportunities for predator fish. The project will place 42 Mossback Essential Shallow Water Bundles, 20 Mossback Essential Deep Water Bundles, 22 Mossback Basic Shoreline Bundles, 14 Mossback Mega Reef structures. In addition, there will be placement of 30 Cedar Trees Adjacent to the newly treated USACE shoreline riprap stabilization project.

Currently, Banner Creek Reservoir’s nearly eight miles of shoreline are mostly devoid of aquatic vegetation with the exception of sparse pockets of water willow and patches of American lotus in in the shallow areas of western third of the reservoir. As such, much of the lake’s shorelines are left exposed to erosion caused by wind and waves. This project involves construction of a greenhouse structure for the purpose of double cropping propagated native aquatic vegetation for transplantation in Banner Creek Reservoir. The establishment of aquatic vegetation at Banner Creek Reservoir would improve the impoundment water quality and fishery by securing shorelines and shallow areas, limiting nutrient availability to harmful algal blooms, and providing refuge and foraging grounds for popular sport fish species.

Rend Lake has a surface area of 20,633 acres, a maximum depth of 35 feet, and a mean depth of 10 feet. The lake is thirteen miles long and three miles wide and has 162 miles of shoreline. It is the second largest impoundment in Illinoi This project is proposed to create biological habitat, inhibit shoreline erosion on highly eroded areas, inhibit mobilization of sediment and nutrients, and reintroduce native plants to an area invaded by common reed. The benefits expected include: increased complexity and diversity of habitat for fish and other wildlife, decreased turbidity, siltation and nutrient loading for improved water quality, increase of native plant species, and the protection of infrastructure necessary for the outdoor recreators to Rend Lake and its surrounding communities. This will promote increased density of priority game fishes and other desirable organisms for greater quality of experiences for anglers, campers, and other outdoor enthusiasts. This improvement project will also increase tourism dollars spent in the surrounding communities.