Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists and volunteers have begun placing artificial habitat in Roosevelt Lake, hoping to help bass and crappie recover from vegetation loss and competition with nonnative shad.

The work is part of a larger plan, the Tonto National Forest Lakes Habitat Improvement Project, which is meant to improve the sustainability — and fishing prospects — of a handful of central Arizona lakes.

More than 100 years old, Roosevelt Lake is one of several Salt River reservoirs. At first, the natural vegetation flooded by Roosevelt dam provided the necessary habitat, but it has since decomposed, said Dave Weedman, statewide aquatic habitat program manager for Game and Fish.

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