The water level at Dan Green Slough and Burr Oak Lake will be held down through the summer’s growing season to eliminate rough fish that had reentered the systems and to reestablish emergent vegetation that had been lost after years of high water.
“These two systems were originally renovated around 2010 and have maintained pretty good habitat since that time. Unfortunately, high water in 2018 and 2019 really set back the emergent vegetation and allowed rough fish back into the marshes,” said Rob Patterson, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “The goal of this project is to get these marshes back to a healthy state and manipulating the water level on these shallow lakes is part of the cycle to keep these areas working as intended. Our intention is to keep the water low in these two systems through the rest of the growing season and into fall. This will give us the best opportunity to achieve our management objectives.”
Dan Green Slough and Burr Oak Lake were two early shallow lake restoration success stories and had been popular places to hunt. As more shallow lakes were restored, the hunting pressure lessened. While these marshes are down, hunters may consider nearby Trumbull Lake, Virgin Lake or Barringer Slough as options.