Bass Pro commits $1.5M to Table Rock project

SBJ Staff

Posted online October 11, 2007 | 1:46 pm

Bass Pro Shops has come on board as the corporate sponsor for the National Fish Habitat Action Plan’s first project: improving the fish habitat and water quality of Table Rock Lake.

The National Fish Habitat Action Plan was established in 2006 by Springfield-based Bass Pro, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and federal and state agencies to help reverse the decline of about 40 percent of the nation’s native fish species. The plan is part of the foundation’s More Fish Campaign, which works to raise awareness and funding to protect, enhance and restore fish and aquatic populations. More Fish grant programs invest in on-the-ground projects demonstrating innovative approaches to fish habitat conservation.

Table Rock Lake in Branson has been selected as the pilot project for the program, officials announced Thursday at the lake.

“Table Rock contains the necessary components of economic importance, heavy public use and adequate fish densities to serve as a national model in sustaining and improving fish populations in aging reservoirs and watersheds,” said Matt Mauck, Missouri Department of Conservation fisheries biologist, in a news release.

Bass Pro has committed $1.5 million over the next five years for the project. That will be matched two-to-one by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and its partners, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Missouri Department of Conservation and Arkansas Fish and Game Commission, for a total of $4.5 million.

Another $2 million of Bass Pro and foundation funds will go to fish habitat projects nationwide, according to the release.

Bass Pro, with Tracker Marine, designed and built a fish habitat barge for the conservation department to use for lake cover augmentation such as brush piles, stump fields and rock reefs. A full-time project-specific fisheries biologist and support staff will run the barge and provide improvements to the watershed, steambank and riparian corridor restoration, as well as other projects to improve water quality and the habitat.

Financial assistance will be given to the septic pump-out program operated by James River Basin Partnership and Table Lake Water Quality, according to the release.[[In-content Ad]]