Environmental Flows Project Background The Cypress Basin Flows Project was initiated in 2004 by the Caddo Lake Institute and the Nature Conservancy (TNC) in partnership with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others. This project was started after the State made the decision that no new water rights would be granted for protection of flows in rivers, lakes and bays. Instead, the state proposed, and has now enacted, a law (Senate Bill 3) to provide a process for setting aside water for instream flows in Texas. Quick Link to Supporting Documents Below Goal and Objectives The project seeks to assure adequate instream flows to sustain the ecological, recreational and economic values of Caddo Lake, its watershed, and the Cypress Basin. To reach its goal, the Project has these objectives: 2. A New Release Rule for Lake O' the Pines: i.e., The Project is also providing a technical basis for a change in the operations of the dam by the North East Texas Municipal Water District and the Corps of Engineers for a more natural pattern of releases needed downstream in Big Cypress Creek and Caddo Lake, while assuring flood control, water supply and the other purposes of the reservoir. 3. Adaptive management for the long term: The Project will continue to obtain new information and refine environmental flow regimes based on experimentation, research and further analysis. Progress Based on a series of meetings with natural resource experts from Texas and elsewhere and with the stakeholders in the watershed, the Project resulted in "Building Blocks" or "environmental flow regimes" to provide for variations in annual and seasonal flows that will best protect fish and wildlife that are dependent upon a healthy ecosystem. Those building blocks then became the scientific basis for the project's recommendations for environmental flows standards and strategies. An adaptive management approach will continue to be used, where Building Blocks, standards, and strategies are developed, tested in the field, and adjusted as a better understanding of the flows and their roles is developed. The Project is relying upon 1) the experience of the TNC-Corps of Engineers Sustainable Rivers Program in other parts of the country; 2) recommendations of the methodology developed by the National Academy of Sciences for the State of Texas on protection of environmental flows; and 3) several recent Texas laws on environmental flows. Much of the scientific work needed to reach the objectives has been completed as part of this project. Documents for: 2010 Environmental Flow Regime and Analysis Recommendation Report July 2008 Aquatic Biology Meeting December 2004 Orientation Meeting
Additional information on Caddo Lake and its watershed can be found on CLI's data website - www.caddolakedata.us.
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