Friday, September 29, 2017
Lake Oconee News
Page B7
DNR joins forces with Yamaha in conservation efforts
Photos and story
by Lena Hensley
yelena@lakeoconeenews.us
Representatives of the
Department of Natural
Resources planted three
kinds of plants (water
willow, pickerelweed and
strap leaf sagittaria) on
Lake Sinclair Friday, Sept.
22. These plants play an
important role in aquatic
environments and provide
benefits to recreational
anglers, according to infor
mation from the DNR.
Plants benefit water quality
and fisheries by stabilizing
shorelines and preventing
erosion while filtering silt,
excess nutrients and other
contaminants from the
water, providing habitat for
insects and amphibians that
fish eat, nursery habitat for
young fish as well as shade
and shelter for adult fish.
DNR has active projects
at Sinclair, Oconee, Russell,
West Point and Clarks Hill,
and is starting another one at
Allatoona. Planting projects
have been going on for about
20 years on a small scale
until a new greenhouse (20-
feet wide and 96-feet long)
was constructed in October
of 2016 at the DNR Wildlife
Resources Division Walton
Fish Hatchery in Social Cir
cle. According to the DNR,
the $9,000 construction
cost of the greenhouse was
covered by Yamaha Marine
Group. Georgia DNR Wild
life Resources Division used
Sport Fish Restoration
funds to complete onsite
preparation, installation
and outfitting of the inside
of the greenhouse with
troughs and plant contain
ers.
According to Chris Nel
son, fisheries biologist, cur
rent capacity of the green
house is about 7,000 plants
at a time. New plants typi
cally take around six to eight
weeks to grow and mature.
The planting season is late
spring through summer
(May-Sept.), and three dif
ferent crops of vegetation
can be grown and planted
during this time frame.
Annual capacity is around
21,000 plants.
Plantings in the reservoirs
(lakes) usually occur about
every eight weeks. Around
1,500-2,000 plants are
normally planted per trip;
however, only 200 plants
were planted on Sept. 22 for
the purpose of demonstra
tion. Areas away from the
heavy traffic are selected
for planting to ensure root
ing of plants because waves
caused by passing boats pre
vent that.
In the past, the DNR
raised plants in small
troughs at the Walton
Hatchery during the grow
ing season but was limited
in what they could produce.
A new greenhouse will allow
the DNR to significantly
increase production so that
plantings can be done in
many more locations than
before and at a much larger
scale than in the past. Mitch
Hunter, Yamaha represen
tative, said the capacity of
the greenhouse was suffi
cient to provide planting
needs of the entire state.
The Yamaha Marine
The planting crew travels across Lake Sinclair with
plants to be placed into the lake bed.
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Group has been promoting
conservation throughout
the state of Georgia and
the country. It has a history
of supporting the Georgia
DNR, having also pledged
$75,000 to fund a public-pri
vate data collection project
and having worked with
the Georgia DNR on crisis
response initiatives. The
ongoing data collection proj
ect aims to assess the impact
of new conservation devices
on red snapper and redfish
populations in the South
Atlantic with the hopes of
increasing both conserva
tion and recreational fishing
access for Georgia anglers.
Yamaha’s assistance with
crisis response includes
providing equipment for
use by DNR during times of
extreme weather.
The Georgia DNR and
Yamaha Marine are natu
ral partners because of the
dedication of both organi
zations to conservation and
sportsmen. Yamaha Marine
works with a large coalition
of recreational fishing orga
nizations to advance these
ideals, including American
Sportfishing Association,
Center for Sportfishing Pol
icy, Coastal Conservation
Association, Recreational
Fishing Alliance and The
odore Roosevelt Conserva
tion Partnership.
DNR officials said they
will continue to conduct
aquatic habitat enhance
ment projects at Lake Sin
clair this year. High on the
list of projects will be con
struction of fish attractors
built with artificial mate
rials. Another piece of the
enhancement program con
sists of shoreline enhance
ment and protection
through bioengineering.
Division personnel will con
tinue planting maidencane,
pickerel plant and water
willow in suitable habitat
areas in the lake that will
provide cover for fish and
help stabilize erosion prob
lems.
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