Summer 2012 - West Virginia Department of Commerce

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PartnersinWildlifeConservationWest Virginia Division of Natural Resources’sCooperative Management Partnership withthe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.By Robert A. Silvester8 West Virginia Wildlife
On Good Friday morning,April 15, 1927, the rainscame, setting all-timerecords over several thousand squaremiles, covering much of Missouri,Illinois, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas andLouisiana. The Memphis CommercialAppeal warned: “The roaring MississippiRiver, bank and levee full fromSt. Louis to New Orleans, is believed tobe on its mightiest rampage. All alongthe Mississippi, considerable fear is felt overthe prospects for the greatest flood in history.” One manrecalled, decades later, “I saw a whole tree just disappear,sucked under by the current, then saw it shoot up, itmust have been a hundred yards downstream. It lookedlike a missile fired by a submarine.”So went the events of the great flood of 1927,which inundated an area of about 26,000 square miles.Levees were breached, and cities, towns and farmslay in waste. The flood waters destroyed crops, andparalyzed industries and transportation. Propertydamage amounted to about $1.5 billion at today’sprices. More than 200 people lost their lives and morethan 600,000 people were displaced.Out of this carnage came the Flood Control Actof 1928, which committed the federal government toa definite program of flood control. Later, the FloodControl Act of 1936 authorized the expenditure of $310million for flood control projects during the next year.The only limitation on federal flood control projects wasthat the economic benefits had to exceed the costs.Osprey nestlings await the next parental feeding 20 feet aboveStonewall Jackson Lake.Photo by Kirk PiehlerTop: Biologists with the Corps of Engineers (left) and theWV DNR Wildlife Resources Section measure thebill of a young osprey.Photo by Marshall SnedegarBluestone Dam is one of 10 dams in West Virginia built by the U.S. Army Corps ofEngineers as a result of the Flood Control Act of 1936. Completed in 1948,it has been undergoing major renovations the past few years.Since 1936, Congress has authorized the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers (COE) to construct hundreds ofmiles of levees, flood walls and channel improvementsalong with approximately 375 major reservoirs. Aspart of this major commitment to flood control forthe Upper Mississippi and Potomac River drainages,the COE has developed and maintains 10 reservoirs inWest Virginia. Tygart Lake, the first impoundment,was completed in 1938. More than 50 years later,Stonewall Jackson Lake, the newest impoundment, wascompleted in 1990.Although flood control is still the primary roleof these reservoirs, that is not the only major benefitthese reservoirs have had in our state. In addition tothe actual impoundments, more than 124,000 acres ofland situated around these reservoirs are leased to theWest Virginia Division of Natural Resources WildlifeResources Section as wildlife management areas.While many local residents might still harbor some illfeelings over the development of these projects on theirfamily farms, many believe the cooperative partnershipbetween the WRS and COE has been a remarkablesuccess story that has benefitted our state’s wildliferesources for more than 50 years.The WRS cooperative partnership with the Corpshas afforded a unique opportunity to develop wildlifeSummer 2012 9Courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Page 2: Wild PerspectiveRemembering a Legen
Page 12 and 13: More than 18,000 acres comprising E
Page 14 and 15: A timber harvest on Bluestone WMA c
Page 16 and 17: West Virginia’sCelebration ofBy J
Page 18 and 19: National Hunting and Fishing Days19
Page 20 and 21: Bill Vanscoy demonstrates deer fiel
Page 22 and 23: 20 West Virginia Wildlife
Page 24 and 25: 22 West Virginia Wildlife
Page 26 and 27: Wild AlmanacBrook TroutAccessRestor

Summer 2012 - West Virginia Department of Commerce

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