Last year, trees in both parks spent a considerable amount of time submerged beneath flood waters from both early and late summer rains. This was frustrating for fishermen and campers who had hoped to spend time in one or the other popular locations. The trees, of which Sycamores are in the majority, were also adversely affected by having their roots submerged for a second or sometimes third season in a row. (Unlike Cypress trees which are adapted to wet conditions, Sycamores can become sick and die in such conditions over a period of time).

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that most of the trees seemed to be doing rather well. I observed active buds on every tree I looked at and while I’m no tree specialist, I am at least hopeful for their continued survival. Now, if we can just get through this spring with normal amounts of rainfall that would be great. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

The men and women who like to fish these waters were also much in evidence as I noted both parks had a good number of RV’s.  Also, the boat launch areas were pretty crowded. The fishing reports I have been getting over the last two weeks have been modest to poor, but everyone I talked to said that the best will come once we get a few warm days under our belts. The warm weather is here now with temperatures expected to climb into the high seventies and low eighties over the coming week.

The bottom line seems to be good for these parks and others like them in and around the southwestern Missouri area.

Followup: Just four weeks after this blog was posted, extremely heavy rains in late May and early April re-flooded the area once again.

I was going to guess that it would re-open soon (it did as of mid January), but then I noticed that the Ranger Station was also missing or had been removed. That cast some doubt in my mind as to what plans the Core of Engineers have as we get closer to spring, and a time when fishermen traditionally flock here with their boats.

I’m not too worried as there’s still plenty of time to clean the place up and get it ready for the spring camping and fishing.

One question in my mind concerns some of the tress, mostly the sycamores, which appear to have died as evidenced the photo of one that toppled over. I would guess that any dead ones, especially close to campsites, will be cut down before the park reopens.

The reason has been a much wetter than normal year for precipitation. The chart here shows the thirty year average rainfall per month in Springfield Missouri with the actual, so far, for 2009. Some of this excess water has ended up in one of three area reservoirs; Beaver Lake, Table Rock Lake or Bull Shoals each of which is serviced by a dam to regulate the flow. The amount of water they can hold is really tremendous in scope. Beaver Lake covers over 3000 acres while Table Rock and Bull Shoals are 43,000 and 45,000 respectively. Each dam measures the water level based on the mean sea level and each has a level it strives to maintain. The absolute level that none of these dams can be allowed to go over is termed the ‘top flood pool’ which is the level above which water must be released to prevent the flooding of nearby properties. In the case of Table Rock dam, when the reservoir is above the maximum flood pool, excess water goes over the auxiliary overflow spillway at the north end of the dam.

In normal times with average rainfall, each is maintained at some level well below this top flood mark. For Beaver dam the average over the last five years has been 1115.7 feet msl (mean sea level), while Table Rock and Bull Shoals are 911.1 and 652.0 feet respectively. Keeping water at the ‘correct or desired’ levels is a bit of a balancing act that is dependant on rainfall, the season and conditions that might be in effect downstream. The Core of Engineers and other authorities do a fantastic job 99% of the time and are stymied only when we experience years that fall outside what would be considered normal. That was the case this year and as a result, we have bodies of water behind each dam that are exceptionally high. So high, in fact that this area would be ill prepared if we getting large amounts of rain anytime in the next quarter of year or so. As of this writing, the current levels of the three dams are as follows:

Beaver             1128.81 feet msl or 13.11 feet over the five year average

Table Rock      915.52 feet msl or 4.42 feet over the five year average

Bull Shoals       679.57 feet msl or 27.57 feet over the five year average

Each dam has been releasing water as fast as is prudent but right now, with so much that is needed to be drawn down form the two dams upstream, the Bull Shoals Lake are will no doubt get even more flooded in the weeks to come, this assuming we get little or no more rain.