Black River WMA tour illustrates necessary changes
Whatever happened to the $13 million that the United States Supreme Court awarded the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission for timber damage at Dave Donaldson Black River Wildlife Management Area?
It’s safe and sound.
A local resident asked Garrick Dugger, assistant chief of wildlife management for the Game and Fish Commission, about that money during a recent tour of forest damage at Black River WMA. It’s in a dedicated account, Dugger said, waiting to be used on projects to rehabilitate damaged portions of bottomland hardwood forest on the area.
The Game and Fish Commission intends to use that money to renovate obsolete and dilapidated water control structures on the area.
The aforementioned tour was very instructive. Attending were Game and Fish Commission members Bobby Martin, Stan Jones, Anne Marie Doramus, John Neely, Rob Finley and Benny Westphal. Also present were state senators Ben Gilmore, Charles Beckham and AGFC director Austin Booth, along with a number of influential local residents.
As at Bayou Meto WMA, Black River WMA has suffered from misguided water management policy and faulty design of its water control infrastructure.
For decades, water policy at the state’s green tree reservoirs mandated flooding the woods early and holding water to provide maximum amounts of flooded timber acreage for duck hunting. That policy has resulted in the wholesale destruction of thousands of acres of timber, with thousands of acres in advanced states of decay. A lot of it is too far gone to save.
For starters, the levees that form the various units are poorly designed, Dugger said. Most are built to a 3:1 ratio, meaning they are 3 feet wide to every 1 foot of height.
Obtaining the earth to build the levees required digging a deep trench on one side, forming giant borrow pits that extend the entire length of the levees. That kind of structure is very good at holding water at a uniform depth, which is bad for trees. Trees need for water to constantly move through an area, rising and falling dynamically.
A steep 3:1 slope is also bad for the levee. Water slams into a near vertical wall, and the borrow pit causes water to circulate and chew into the levee. In a very short time, it will cause a levee to fail. The levees at Dave Donaldson Black River WMA have been patched many times, and there are gaps that need patching right now.
“Repairs have to be done with a track hoe,” Dugger said. “You saw how long it took for us to get down here in side-by-sides. Think about how long it takes a track hoe to get down here. That takes a lot of fuel. That costs a lot of money.”
Facilitating water movement requires a levee with a gentler slope. Water can flow over the top of a 10:1 levee without the erosive action and still hold water for ducks. Such a levee is also easier and less expensive to maintain.
Mechanical water control structures are also outdated and counterproductive. They operate with gates that are raised and lowered to capture and release water. Some have boards. Others have steel panels.
Most of these structures were misplaced away from the main channel of their respective waterways. They impede water flow rather than encourage it. Most are also too narrow, creating bottlenecks that impede water flow rather than facilitate it.
They were created, Dugger said, in an era when there was scant knowledge about the relationship between hydrology and bottomland forest ecology. The engineering that created the green tree reservoirs was faulty, and it must be corrected.
Also, using vertical boards and metal plates is faulty for multiple reasons. Modern designs call for plates that depress downward, allowing water to flow over the tops of the gates instead of through the bottom.
Currently, the Game and Fish Commission is awaiting approval for various hydrology models before work can proceed. Brad Carner, chief of the agency’s wildlife division, said he expects the models to be approved by October or November.
When the commission gets the green light, the settlement money will be available for use, Dugger added.