 MAYFLOWER
– The drawdown of Lake Conway, a scheduled five-month event, has reached
the two-thirds mark, and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission personnel are
beginning checks of permits for piers, boathouses and other structures
along the shoreline.
The drawdown began on July 15 with several goals -- to allow landowners
to work on shoreline structures or to remove them if needed, to
encourage landowners to remove accumulated silt around their areas, to
reduce excess vegetation and to generally improve fish conditions.
The schedule calls for the gates to be closed on Dec. 15 so refilling
can begin. How soon the 6,700-acre lake refills will depend on rainfall,
said lake manager Dustin Opine. The lake is about five feet below its
normal level.
Before the drawdown began, Opine led a project to inventory all
structures on the shorelines and to record their locations with Global
Position System (GPS) equipment. Only about a third of the structures
had valid permits from the AGFC, with many structures apparently
abandoned or dilapidated.
 Opine
said, “Our (AGFC) Fiscal Division has issued over 500 permits since
mid-July. Before we started only 340 structures out of just over 1,000
were permitted. We are now approaching our goal to have all structures
on the lake permitted.”
The permits cost $5 per year. Assigned permit
numbers must be posted on lake
structures.
Opine said enforcement officers will call on landowners where
unpermitted piers, boathouses and other facilities are found. Citations
will be issued for persons who don’t obtain the necessary annual
permits or that have not removed personal
property such as fences, storage buildings, gardens or animal pens from
the AGFC easement.
Opine said, “Many landowners are taking advantage of the drawdown and
repairing or removing structures. A growing number of residents are also
taking advantage of the situation by removing sediment from in front of
their lots. This is to allow access to boathouses, which have silted in,
and to deepen areas around fishing piers for fishing. Residents should
know that we will be coming back around to inspect progress in the near
future. Any shoreline work being done around the lake should be approved
by the Game and Fish Commission.”
Public fishing piers on the lake are being renovated under the
supervision of Mike Walker, AGFC’s regional maintenance coordinator.
Opine said, “He (Walker) has contracted the repair of all public fishing
piers on
 the
lake. The decks have been replaced at Pierce Creek access and Gerald
Ward public fishing pier. All fishing piers have been re-braced. All
piers will also have roofs constructed over the “T” structures that
provide cover from the weather. We obtained 470 damaged Christmas trees
from a tree farmer in Jacksonville, and combined with other trees and
brush, they will be used to build fish attracting structures around the
fishing piers. The ramp at the dam site access will also be rebuilt.”
He added, “There will be a Lake Conway clean-up in cooperation with the
Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission Oct. 14 to
Nov. 18. Volunteers can pick the best days for their group. If you or
your volunteer group is interested in participating please
contact me at the Mayflower Fisheries office at (501) 470-3309,
extension 212. The Arkansas Highway Department is supplying trash bags
and will assist us by picking up the full bags placed along any state
highway. Litter picked up from the lake may also be left at any AGFC
access site on the lake.” |