Annual Wildlife Seeding At Grand Lake Frustrates Boaters

Water laps the shore at Grand Lake a little lower than normal Sunday afternoon, but come Labor Day weekend, the lake levels will be down even more possibly exposing hazards to boaters.

The lake is drained several feet each year, right before the holiday weekend. It's a practice that has Joe Harwood, owner and operator of the Arrowhead Yacht Club and Marina, up in arms.

“The thing that has me fired up, is that it's the absolute absurdity of the practice,” he said. “It started over 20 years ago over a federal wildlife mitigation program requiring GRDA to make mitigation for wildlife for some unknown reason.”

The program was formed in 1992 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The plan mandates that water levels go down to 741 feet, several feet below normal, in order to expose muddy areas to grow millet seed.

The seed is supposed to feed birds like Ducks and Geese. But some say it hasn't been successful.

"The millet seeding over and over again, did not prove to be an effective means of mitigating for wildlife," Rusty Fleming of the Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce said.

Even more frustrating this year? The seed isn't going to be planted, but the mandate still is being enforced.

“And yet here we are today, more than 20 years later and at the height of our boating and recreation season, we drop the lake 3 feet in the driest, hottest, month of the year,” Harwood said. “Before one of the biggest holiday weekends, exposing sandbars, beaches, rocks, hazards and everything else.

They are hazards that some in the community feel they shouldn't have to deal with.

“They're outraged that this lake would be dropped, and that geese and ducks would get more consideration that the human race,” Fleming said.

GRDA issued us this statement, in part it says: "The GRDA understands the frustration of many Grand Lake stakeholders… For several years, the Authority has been seeking a change to the rule."