Great Salt Plains Lake is dying

[RickN]

Another suggestion is to remove enough trees around the pond to allow wind to blow across the pond which will provide current and oxygen.

That will that also cut down on the amount of water the tree roots suck up. If I remember correctly some trees such as willows can draw a lot of water if to close to a pond.

 

[SwampPapa]

My dad was one of the two state park rangers there in the early eighties i got to hang out with some of the men that build the dam they told me then that they were suprised that the lake had lasted as long as it had l remember the summer of '80 the beaches were so ittered with dead fish they disced them under we almost walked from the north side to the channel at coon hollow except for the muck so lets blow the whiers and let the river go back to its natural course besides i want to see if the rumors of the command center in the dam and the bank robbery cache that is there supposedly

 

[Shooter77]

Really sad. I used to fish with my dad where those pictures were taken when we lived in Cherokee. That stinks (no pun intended).

 

[Deer Slayer]

The water in the weirs is septic and black. There are dead turtles littering the weirs and the gar have finally died. There are turtles that have been able to evacuate the weir area and were seen tonight crossing the parking lot. The water must be soooooo hot that the gar are getting boiled. The lake is now getting very low apparently.

RickN - Yes you are right about willow,cottonwood and sycamore sucking large amounts of water out of the pond daily. I have 4 nice size sycamores that are getting cut and dropped into my pond to stop the water loss AND provide habitat for minnows to spawn on.