COLUMN: Fish habitat installation in progress

     The Central Park Lake Restoration Project is in full swing!

     Exciting changes are happening every day at Central Park Lake as work crews remove years of accumulated sediment from the lake bed and work to add fish habitat and armoring to the lake shores. I encourage everyone to drive out and take a look at the progress. It’s truly amazing to see the lake bed and fish habitat components now before they disappear from sight when the lake fills with rain water later this spring.

     Many people have noticed our blue pipe and five gallon bucket fish habitat shrubs and our wooden stake bed structures sitting throughout Central Park awaiting placement in the lake bed. These are all artificial fish habitat components that will be placed within the lake to provide needed habitat for fish and aquatic insects and invertebrates.

     Aquatic insects, invertebrates, and fish all need healthy living spaces – habitat – to survive and thrive. The quality and quantity of habitat in a waterbody directly affects the animal populations living there. Temperature, water depth, current, waves, bottom structure, shelter, oxygen levels and dissolved minerals are all important physical and chemical factors influenced by the habitat. Habitat requirements for fish vary depending on each stage of their life cycle – from egg to adult fish.

     Natural fish habitat components include aquatic plant beds, vegetated and rocky shoreline, backwater areas, drop-offs, rock reefs, fallen logs, and nesting shelves. All are important to help maintain a diverse and healthy lake ecosystem. These structures provide places for nesting and spawning habitat, places to hide from predators, shade from the hot summer sun, and places for food organisms to live and grow. In addition, artificial structures like docks and piers, stake beds, and flexible pipe fish shrubs, can be an effective way to concentrate fish and help increase fishing success and access as well as angler satisfaction. All of these components will be included in Central Park Lake and will enable aquatic life to move freely as seasons change and habitat requirements vary.

     If you do get a chance to drive around the lake, the rock reef habitat enhancements with concrete culvert catfish hides and rock piles are highly visible right now. If you are not able to head out to Central Park, make sure you check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/JonesCountyConservation/posts/. We update our page every couple of days.

     Upon completion of the Central Park Lake Restoration project, anglers and lake users will be able to download a map including habitat enhancement structure locations by visiting the IDNR website at http://www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/Fishing-Maps.