CADDO LAKE NEWS
The Greater Caddo Lake Association

 

The mission of the Greater Caddo Lake Association, ( GCLA ) is to help preserve and keep safe one of nature's true wonders, Caddo Lake. If you would like to become a member of the GCLA click on the, Become a Member link here or on any page and find out how.
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AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2008 NEWS LETTER
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CADDO   LAKE   NEWS

NEWSLETTER OF THE GREATER CADDO LAKE ASSOCIATION OF TEXAS       

JANUARY 2011

caddolakenews.org

 

 

What We Do, Have Done, and
Promise to Continue to Do

 One of the most frequent questions asked of GCLA Board Members is, what does GCLA do?

 This issue of our Newsletter is devoted to outlining the major efforts in which GCLA has been involved since its founding in 1978. That’s right; this organization has been protecting Caddo Lake for over 30 years!  However, we can’t take all of the credit. Many other organizations and individuals have been involved.  I hesitate to list them at the risk of forgetting someone. Here are some of the groups that come to mind: The City of Uncertain, Caddo Lake Chamber of Commerce & Tourism, Friends of Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Caddo Lake Institute, Cypress Valley Navigation District, Greater Caddo Lake Assoc. of Louisiana, The Nature Conservancy,…, and many individuals too numerous to name... We do want to recognize the original founders of GCLA: John Echols, Robert Speight, Sr., Richard Fredrick, L.B. Stewart, Flo Daniels, Gene Walker Sr., George Williamson. Let us know if we missed anyone.

 On to answering the question: What has GCLA done for Caddo Lake?

 Road Improvement

GCLA was formed in 1978 with the stated purpose of improving the roads around the lake (which were much WORSE than they are today) and to control dangerous floods. While the roads still need improvement, they are in much better shape than they were in 1978.

 Paper Mill on the banks of Big Cypress

We successfully fought against a large paper mill proposed to be located on the banks of Big Cypress bayou

 “Caddo Lake Compact”

Successfully fought against the ‘Caddo Lake Compact’. This ‘compact’, between Texas and Louisiana, would have raised the weir 2 to 4 feet to supply water to Shreveport. John Echols and then County Judge Richard Anderson (the same) went to D.C. and testified before congress as to why this was not a good idea.

 Lake o’ the Pines Hydro Electric

Opposed a hydro-electric generator being placed on Lake o’ the Pines spillway

 Chicken Processing

Fought against a chicken processing plant being located on Little Cypress bayou. Poultry processing uses huge amounts of water. That use of water would have been at the expense of Caddo Lake.

 Lake Marshall

Spent years opposing the so-called ‘Lake Marshall’ being built on Little Cypress by the Little Cypress Utility District. This project would have cut flows to Caddo and provided land speculators with a boondoggle, get-rich-quick scheme and very little extra water for the City of Marshall.

 Pilgrims Pride

Fought against Pilgrims Pride’s efforts to dump poultry processing waste into Big Cypress bayou at Pittsburg

Daingerfield Reach

Opposed the “Daingerfield Reach”, a barge canal proposed to run from the Red River to Lone Star, Texas, passing thru Caddo Lake and Lake o’ the Pines

 Ramsar Treaty

GCLA supported the designation of approximately 20,000 acres of the Caddo Lake area as a “Wetland of International Importance” under the Ramsar Treaty.

 Wildlife Management Area

Supported the creation of the Caddo Lake Wildlife Management Area from land donated by the Nature Conservancy

 Marshall, Again

Joined CLI in opposing Marshall’s efforts to sell water to Entergy for a combined cycle power plant southwest of Marshall

 Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Supported the creation of the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge within the former Longhorn Ammunition Plant (a superfund site)

 Industrial ParkOpposed the use of part of the Longhorn Army Ammunition property for an industrial park. Special interests in Marshall had pursued the use of 1000 acres within the National Wildlife Refuge, to be used as an Industrial Park. GCLA believed that this was totally inconsistent with the purpose of a National Wildlife Refuge.

 Water Hyacinths

Started the first non-agency invasive aquatic vegetation control program on Caddo Lake targeting water hyacinth.

 Salvinia

Organized some of the early efforts to respond to the threat of Giant Salvinia including building a barrier fence, researching methods to kill Salvinia and pursuing ongoing funding to establish a permanent spray program. We also organized community education meetings to inform everyone of the problem.

 Support for the Science of Caddo Lake

Supported CLI and The Nature Conservancy’s efforts to create a flow regime for Big Cypress and Caddo Lake to better understand what Caddo Lake needs to be the viable natural resource we have all come to love.

 Being Good Neighbors

GCLA has supported, financially and with resources, the Clean Up efforts both around the lake and in the lake. Other partners in this effort have been Harrison County and the City of Uncertain.

 The Lost Soul Patrol

Although not part of the charter of GCLA, our board members frequently get calls from people lost on the lake, out of gas, etc. Below is a report from John Winn and how he handled one of those requests and, no doubt, avoided an international incident!!

 

How to Make a Friend on Caddo

By John Winn

 

       One afternoon I got a call from my friend, Jay Webb with the Harrison County Sheriff’s office, asking for assistance in searching for two guys who were lost on Caddo.  These guys were from the U.K. and came to Caddo to kayak, had no map, and got lost. Jay and Darrin, our local game warden, were already out in the patrol boat looking for them. The guys had called 911 from a satellite phone, but from what I gather, it was a one-way conversation because dispatch was unable to call them back (something about their U.K. number). They were able to tell dispatch where they put in, and that they could see a lot of little houses that were falling down-- and that was all. To make matters worse, one of the guys was diabetic and didn’t have his medicine, and it was about to get dark.

          I met with Jay and Darrin, and then went looking up into Lone Pine Stretch, worked my way up into Bird Roost and, eventually, Lower Hole Bird Roost. As I went along, I would stop and blow an air horn and listen for a response. It was starting to get dark, and with the tree frogs starting up with their chorus, I was afraid I wouldn’t hear anything over the racket of the frogs if they did respond. Just as I was about to give up on using the horn, I heard a faint, “Hey! Hey!” off in the distance. As I worked my way toward the sound of the calls, I looked through the cypress and, sure enough, there are the two Brits standing in a duck blind (“a little house” to them!) waving their arms like crazy, making sure they got my attention. They must have thought I was blind, because they didn’t stop waving their arms until I got right up on them. These guys had resolved themselves to spending the night in a duck blind before they heard me. Needless to say, the first thing they told me was, “We are really glad to see you!”
      After many thanks on the way back to where they had launched, I finally was able to return them to where they had longed to be—to their car. As we were loading their kayaks, one of the guys tried to give me some money for rescuing them, but I turned it down and just told them to help the next person they saw in need. Then, after several more handshakes and words of thanks, I departed and left them waving their arms, much like the first time I saw them. This time, however, it was out of gratitude, rather than desperation. These guys were truly grateful for help, and this was something they would not soon forget. There have been several people over the years I have rescued, lost or broken down here on Caddo, and I have yet to meet any that weren’t very grateful for being rescued. All of a sudden, you make a new friend when you come across them. Just think! I just made two new friends, from the U.K., no less! Friends for life!

 Special Thanks to Robert Speight for much of the history detailed above.

Oil City Residents claim sewage spilling into Caddo Lake

 

Marshall News-Messenger, November 25, 2007.

 

By RYAN RENFROW, News Messenger

The efforts at Caddo Lake to help control the many invasive species
assaulting the water were a major point of discussion at the 2nd Annual
Texas Invasive Plants Conference in Austin last weekend.

"Caddo Lake is always a topic of interest to people in general because it's
the only naturally-formed lake of its size in Texas, but it's also the home
place of Lady Bird Johnson," said Jack Canson, project coordinator for the
Caddo Lake Giant Salvinia Community Response,

The conference at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center was attended by
close to 150 professional plant control people from the government and
academia including officials from Texas Parks and Wildlife, departments of
Interior and Agriculture and the Army Corps of Engineers, who all deal with
terrestrial and aquatic plants, said Canson.

In attendance as Caddo Lake representatives were Vanessa Adams, a biologist
for TPWD, Beverly Allen, a biologist for North East Texas Municipal Water
District, and Howard Elder and Earl Chilton of the Inland Fisheries Division
of TPWD.

"All made presentations specifically about the invasive aquatic plant
problem at Caddo Lake. That's giant salvinia, water hyacinth and hydrilla.
To a casual observer visiting (Caddo Lake) the obvious problem is the water
hyacinth. There are over 3,000 acres where you're supposed to be seeing
water and it looks like land," said Canson.

However, the water hyacinth is acting as camouflage to an even bigger
problem.

"The greatest threat is the giant salvinia which is hidden in that water
hyacinth, and unlike the water hyacinth it doesn't come and go, spiking one
year and going back the next. It (giant salvinia) just gets bigger and
bigger and takes over more and more," he added.

Since the water hyacinth is helping precipitate the growth of giant salvinia
a new tactic has been created to combat both species.

"For the first time ever since water hyacinth first appeared in Caddo Lake
there is going to be a real comprehensive program to fight water hyacinth
next year, because it's the only way you can get to giant salvinia. It's
really ironic because we should have been fighting water hyacinth a long
time ago," noted Canson.

Along with spurring the expansion of giant salvinia, the water hyacinth has
an impact in an area many people may not even realize is affected.

"We learned that water hyacinth is not only a nuisance ... displacing
habitats, it's a water consumer and not just the water that is bound up in
the plant. A plant is 97 percent water, so all that stuff you're looking at
(on top of the water) not only is that supposed to be open water, the water
in that plant is supposed to be in that water basin."

Also, as water hyacinth "breathes" through transpiration - it breathes water
into the atmosphere - causing it to consume three times more water than
would be lost to normal evaporation of open water. explained Canson.

"What is comes down to is in the last six months Caddo Lake lost as much as
15,000 acre-feet of water that it would not have lost if those
three-thousand acres had not had water hyacinth on them. The total is about
twenty-one thousand acre-feet with evaporation and water hyacinth together.
The lake only loses about six-thousand acre-feet of water to evaporation."

This combined total loss of water has made officials look at the water
hyacinth problem with new eyes.

"We've always looked at it in ecological terms, but it turns out there are
scientifically valid studies that indicate it's an economical problem as
well. Dr. (T.L.) Arsuffi (director of the Llano River Field Station) said
the most economic means of developing new water supplies in Texas right now
would be to clean up the aquatic plants. People are just now coming to
realize what the hard economic cost of the invasive aquatic plants are and
nobody anywhere believes that we are not going to need more water next year
and the year after," said Canson.

Over the past year, residents in and around Caddo Lake have lead a clean-up
effort against the invasive species attacking the lake that has gained state
and national attention.

"One of the reasons we get more attention is we have local people doing
stuff. Like building that fence out there, they don't wait as most of these
communities do for the government to come in. What local efforts do and the
reason they are so important is, if you don't have local effort then you
aren't moving the politicians forward and not getting the funds for the
problem and that's what it's all about," said Canson.

Getting those funds has been the hard part, but with the help of Harrison
County Judge Richard Anderson and U.S. Rep Louie Gohmert, Caddo Lake is
about to see a major change.

"People are going to see a different situation at Caddo Lake next spring,
with serious equipment and serious manpower. Congressman Gohmert and Richard
(Anderson) have been fantastic in pulling together the resources. This is
going to be a $700,000 plan. We are talking about adding two boats and four
full-time crew members to work 365 days a year on the Louisiana side and a
new air-boat and three full-time people on the Texas side. A really
incredible plan," said Canson.

The funds are only the beginning and according to Canson, Caddo Lake will
serve as an example for others who want to stand up and protect their lakes
for the hard fight ahead.

"We want to encourage locals to create their own way to capture water
hyacinth and plan to help underwrite the costs of implementing the design on
Caddo and other lakes facing the same problems. We hope to formalize all
this stuff into a project called Shoreline Watch and export it to other
communities that are near water bodies.

"No matter what we do next year, and we are going to do a lot, we are in for
several really, really tough years. There is no question about it."


 We Don’t Know what the next threat to Caddo Lake will be.  But, we do know that there will be a threat and we need your help to protect the Lake.

 Check your Mailing Label  If your membership has expired, please help us to Keep Caddo Lake Natural by renewing your membership. We can handle dues for more than one year!

 Local Residents – We have an opening for one Board member. Contact a Director if you are interested.

 GCLA OFFICERS

PRESIDENT: Terry Echols     VICE-PRES.:  Sam Canup

SECRETARY:  Jack Welch    TREASURER: Judith Johnson

 

DIRECTORS

 

Jack Canson           Gary Kempf                 Dan Fulghum                 Jim Lambright Doug Parker

Sara Smith Robert Speight, Jr.        Tom Walker                   Patti Webb                 John Winn

 

 The Greater Caddo Lake Association of Texas is a tax exempt organization under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and has received a determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service establishing that contributions to GCLA are tax deductible to the contributor. Dues, however, are not tax deductible.


 



 


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