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Long an exceptional fresh water fishery and a haven for ducks, wading birds and other wildlife, Lake Livingston is nearly 60 years old. It has lost much of its aquatic habitat and the water quality has declined. Once a destination for bass anglers, there has seen a precipitous decline in angling activity. Recreation on Lake Livingston is a major economic engine for numerous surrounding communities and the decline in the fishery has negatively affected local revenues.

Friends of Lake Livingston is restoring habitat for fish and wildlife populations by adding aquatic and riparian plants to create feeding and breeding grounds and reducing erosion!

The long-term goal of the project is to increase the abundance and diversity of native aquatic plant species and riparian habitat in and around Lake Livingston, TX, thereby improving littoral habitat conditions for the fish community and other aquatic life. Texas Parks & Wildlife has proposed that a successful restoration will need to cover 5% - (4,250 acres) of the lake and/or shoreline habitat.

1. Multi-species aquatic plant propagation and lake introduction including:
-American Water Willow, Bulrush, American Pondweed , Hyssop, Lilies
- Introduced “founder colony” concepts for better initial protection against herbivory actions
- Founder Colony concepts have quadrupled plant propagation at two recently planted sites in
2018/2019 in comparison to past planted sites

2. Volunteer Propagation and Plant introduction by the local community
- 8 local high schools (including ecology education outreach)
- Texas Dept. of Corrections Ellis Unit horticulture class (including ecology education outreach) – Prison
Unit used as an initial plant propagation site after which plants are transferred to the high school
groups for further growth
- Community groups (Master Gardener, Master Naturalists, local Bass Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Chambers of
Commerce) – including ecology education outreach

3. Measuring Progress & Success
- Introduced Invertebrate Monitoring at Planted sites (included in the ecology outreach education bi-
annually at the high school ag programs) – for assessment of water quality improvement
- Site Monitoring (plant counts over time) & Optimization
- Focused and repetitive planting at specifically selected sites to enhance and accelerate the
restoration process
- Two sites planted in both 2018 and 2019 have quadrupled in size using founder colony concepts

4. Riparian Restoration
- Implemented a new strategic program addition to the program with assistance from the Texas A&M
Forest Service for riparian restoration at selected shorelines
- Planted numerous buttonbush, native grasses, bald cypress and Swamp Oak

5. Georgia Cubes – added Georgia Cube construction during high school plantings after seeing this at
the 2018 FOR conference and after construction training from TPWD
- 7 cubes were built in late 2019 (by high school students) and introduced at two sites in early 2020
- Introduced 3 Mossback Trophy Reefs into the lake in early 2019

Expected outcomes include significant gains in establishing and accelerating aquatic habitat in both calm and more wave prone areas, improvement of water quality in near shore planted environments, improvement of invertebrate activity in planted sites (water quality indicator), provide more cover for sport fishing habitat, better capture of sediments and reduction of shoreline erosion and subsequent lake sedimentation by riparian habitat restoration.

Addition of Georgia Cube artificial reef construction and introduction into the lake adds immediate habitat structure. This effort started in 2019 at our high school planting (construction by students) and was well received by Texas Parks & Wildlife, the Trinity River Authority and the local fishing community. GPS coordinates of introduced reef habitats were placed on the TPWD website for Lake Livingston.

TPWD is always directly involved with our processes. TPWD approves all plants we propagate and introduce into the lake. Further, TPWD collaborates with the TRA (Trinity River Authority) on all selected planting sites. Both have to approve our planting sites. Additionally, both TPWD and TRA approve location for insertion of artificial reef habitats. TPWD puts the GPS locations on their website for Lake Livingston.

Both TPWD and TRA attend all of our school plantings furnishing boats, labor, guidance and all around support. Without both of them, the project would not be possible. TRA provides boats and labor for the artificial reef introduction.

There is an associated lake habitat management plan that TPWD provides as further guidance and connection to the Friends of Lake Livingston project. It can be seen at:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/lake_survey/pwd_rp_t3200_1326_2016.pdf

Largemouth Bass

White Crappie

Black Crappie

Bluegill

Other sunfish species

FoLL has built a broad outreach plan that includes:
• Updated website – friendsoflakelivington.com
• Active Facebook site updates
• Bi-annual community newsletter
• Posting of activity in local community newspapers (recent article in Polk County Enterprise on the Georgia Cube introduction)
• Yearly Ecology outreach to our 8 participating local high school agriculture programs
o Education on lake ecology, littoral habitat, lake conservation, horticulture, active plant propagation in supplied propagation tanks, invertebrate monitoring, riparian habitat restoration and water quality testing
• Yearly instruction of Texas Master Naturalist concepts at the Texas Dept. of Corrections Lee College horticulture program including lake ecology, plant propagation, and supplied propagation tanks

Further Outreach is done with our Partners on a continuing basis:

Friends of Lake Livingston has established a very strong base of community volunteers including significant connections to the youth of the community through 8 local high school agricultural instruction programs. Additionally, we partner with two master naturalist chapters (Piney Wood Lakes – Livingston and Heartwood – Conroe), Master Gardeners from Polk and Walker Counties, the Texas Association of Bass Clubs, Lee College Horticulture program at the TDCJ Ellis Unit, the Polk County Hookers fishing club, the Sam Houston Electric Coop Charitable Foundation, Texas Parks & Wildlife and the Trinity River Authority.