Caddo Lake (caddolakeleroywilliamson2.jpg) The Nature Conservancy in Texas Press Releases Search All Press Releases Niki Frances McDaniel 210-224-8774, ext. 217, nmcdaniel@tnc.org

Nature Conservancy announces $1 million donation from Nestlé  Waters to preserve threatened water resources

Caddo Lake will benefit from water flow management studies

San Antonio, Texas—July 8, 2005—A $1 million donation to The Nature Conservancy’s Sustainable Waters program from Nestlé Waters will assist efforts to preserve the ecological health at Caddo Lake in northeast Texas and northwest Louisiana, as well as support other projects around the country, the Conservancy announced today. Nestlé Waters, the world’s largest distributor of bottled water, is making the donation over the next five years to support the Conservancy’s efforts to advance sustainable water-management practices.

At Caddo, the Sustainable Waters program has organized a series of on-site workshops in which scientists, water managers and local community members examine the current and projected demands on the available water and evaluate how the Lake O’ the Pines Reservoir could be operated to meet a broader spectrum of needs. The effort seeks to improve the overall health of the freshwater system affecting Big Cypress Bayou and Caddo Lake downstream while continuing to meet human demands such as drinking water, flood control and recreation.

Caddo Lake ©  Leroy Williamson

"We are thrilled to have this generous donation from  Nestlé Waters to help us work toward protecting the ecological health of such freshwater systems as Caddo Lake," said Brian Richter, director of the Conservancy’s Sustainable Waters program. "The lessons we learn from this project can be implemented across the country where a balance of human and environmental water needs is crucial."

"The health of Big Cypress Bayou and Caddo Lake are dependent in large part upon freshwater releases from Lake O’ the Pines," said Dan Weber, the Conservancy’s northwest Louisiana program manager, who provides oversight for the organization’s Caddo Lake projects. "Currently, we recognize several problems downstream associated with both water quality and quantity. The effort underway is a science-based approach to determining exactly how much water is really required, and under what conditions, for the downstream environment to persist over time, while continuing to provide quality habitat for associated flora and fauna."

At a second flow-ecology workshop sponsored by the Conservancy’s Sustainable Waters program in early May – the first was held last December – participants examined the ecological relationship of water flows from Lake O’ the Pines down Big Cypress Bayou to Caddo Lake. Participants from Texas, Louisiana and across the nation determined research needs aimed at improving this understanding of flow and lake-level influences on ecological conditions in Big Cypress Bayou and Caddo Lake.

The largest natural lake in Texas – believed to have been created by logjams on the Red River – Caddo Lake and surrounding wetlands are a mixed bottomland hardwood forest and shallow bald cypress swamp that border Louisiana and Texas and cover 50 square miles. Long regarded as one of the best remaining examples of this forest type, the area was declared the United States’ thirteenth Wetland of International Importance by the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty that recognizes exemplary wetland systems. A maze of bayous, cypress swamps and ponds, Caddo Lake and its surroundings support the richest array of aquatic creatures in the area, with more than 20 mussel species and 90-plus species of fish, including uncommon species such as the paddlefish.

The Conservancy has been working to protect Caddo Lake since the early 1990s and was instrumental in the creation of Caddo Lake State Natural Area. It also owns and manages the 1,000-acre Fred and Loucille Dahmer Caddo Lake Preserve, named for the late husband-and-wife team who devoted most of their lives to conserving this beautiful, mysterious lake.

Freshwater systems throughout the United States are experiencing multiple threats, including expanding urban areas requiring increasing amounts of water and dams operations that change natural patterns of water flow. Texas has among the highest development rates in the nation, with estimates that about one square mile of undeveloped land is lost every four days.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with The Nature Conservancy to determine how best to manage the water in a sustainable fashion, which in many instances requires modifying previous practices. The corps has joined with The Nature Conservancy on several projects, including the Sustainable Rivers Project, an effort to protect the river ecosystems downstream of 12 dams in ten states.

In addition to the Corps of Engineers, other partners in the Caddo Lake program include the Northeast Texas Water District, Texas A&M University, the Caddo Lake Institute and other non-governmental groups, and a number of federal, state and local agencies.

______________________________________

The Nature Conservancy is an international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit us on the Web at nature.org. In Texas, the Conservancy owns 34 nature preserves and manages 61 conservation projects in partnership with other landowners. Since 1964, the Conservancy has protect nearly a million acres with partners in Texas. To learn more, visit nature.org/texas.