A major
Birds of prey are a key indicator of the health of an ecosystem because it means their food, including snakes and rabbits, are thriving as well. CHAIN REACTION
RESERVOIR
Bois d’Arc Lake is scheduled to deliver up to 70 million gallons of water per day to the North Texas Municipal Water District in spring 2023. DESIGNED BY CHELSEA PETERS COMPILED BY BROOKLYNN COOPER
A Bois d'Arc Lake B Lake Ralph Hall C Lavon Lake D Chapman Lake E Lake Tawakoni
Snakes
Hawks and eagles
Small birds
Rabbits
Water service area County borders
Riverby Ranch
A
GRAYSON COUNTY
Grass
Mice
Grasshoppers
FANNIN COUNTY
B
DENTON COUNTY
Frogs
DELTA COUNTY
COLLIN COUNTY
SOURCE: AZO LIFE SCIENCES/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
D
owners protested the loss of land and wild- life. One such protest came from a property owner who lost land that had been in their family since 1865. “A big ‘Thank you,’
ranch, it was entirely forested, so the restoration team knew efforts had to begin with planting trees. The project team planted native sap- lings, such as black willows, cotton- woods and sycamores. Live stakes, or sticks from these trees, were planted in lieu of seeds because they have a higher rate of germination, said Sam Kieschnick, an urban wildlife biologist at Texas Parks & Wildlife. “If you plant a stick into the ground, it’s already past the first challenges that it could have,” Kieschnick said. “Willow trees are really, really easy to propagate by just putting sticks into the ground.” Trees prevent erosion from polluting streams. This is especially important for the Bois d’Arc Lake project because of the surrounding watershed, which includes the Red River and Bois d’Arc Creek, the release said. Bodies of water that are downstream from agricultural areas, such as a ranch, are more suscep- tible to sediment pollution—manure, herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers— said Brandon Hall, a field ecologist at Resource Environmental Solutions. “All that water then flows further
in the U.S., according to a May 31 news release from the water district. The release stated that more than 6.3 million trees had been planted in Fannin County over the course of four years. The goal of the project was to transform the land, formerly known as Riverby Ranch, from a cattle ranch to an ideal home for native wildlife. The 15,000-acre Riverby Ranch site is located northeast of Bois d’Arc Lake. Now more than 8,500 acres of wet- lands, 70 miles of streams and 3,200 acres of native grasslands have been restored, according to the release. Active planting and restoration efforts will end this year, and the team will transition to monitoring the site. “What they did on that acreage is really incredible because they went in and restored native herbaceous plants,” Moore said. “It’s going to be pretty incredible what we will see in the near future as far as what that prop- erty will yield in wildlife.” Planting with purpose Before the Riverby Ranch area spent much of the last century as a cattle
• MCKINNEY
• FARMERSVILLE
C
• FRISCO
HUNT COUNTY
• PLANO
E
RAINS COUNTY
RICHARDSON •
ROCKWALL COUNTY
MESQUITE •
needs to go out to the landowners ... in that part of the world,” Moore said in an inter- view with Community Impact Newspaper . “The lake would not have happened if the landowners did not sell their property.” However, the lake will offer eco- nomic opportunities to Fannin County, Moore noted late last year, adding that Fannin County would be the “recre- ation county for all of North Texas.” To help restore the ecosystem around the lake, the water district collaborated with Resource Environmental Solu- tions, a national ecological restoration company. Together they were able to complete one of the largest environ- mental restoration projects of its kind
DALLAS COUNTY
KAUFMAN COUNTY
SOURCE: NORTH TEXAS MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
MAP NOT TO SCALE N
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the next 50 years and, in dry years, need an estimated 243 million more gallons of water per day by that time. Fannin County Judge Randy Moore said besides infrastructure improve- ments surrounding the lake, his county has not yet benefited much from its development. Reporting by the Texas Tribune in the years leading up to the lake’s approval and eventual construction showed that Fannin County property
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COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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