Many good things are happening at Lake Martin lately which is a turn around from the tragic events of the past few years.
1. The Nature Conservancy is constructing long needed and much awaited public restrooms at their new visitor center on the south side of the lake near the rookery.
2. The water levels appear to be back to normal due to a management policy change which stopped the autumn drainage, and as of this winter, being the rainiest in decades.
3. The nesting bird population appears to be on the rise,
in direct relation to water levels.
4. Abundant rain has of course improved water quality.
I did a couple of my Louisiana swamp tours in the middle of September last year and then immediately drove down to the drain gate on the south side used for the last 8 years to drain the swamp. I went there to inspect the drain gate and was pleasantly surprised to see several additions to the 6" control structure panels, allowing more water to be trapped and thus raise the water levels.
What I expected to find was the 6" panels being removed and the plug being pulled to drain the lake and lower the water as usual for that time of year.
Instead, based on what I found, my prayers had been answered.
A de la Houssaye Swamp Tour Hopefully the Wildlife and Fisheries and Nature Conservancy are realizing that the drainage of the water and thus lower water levels are possible causes of the departure of the nesting birds from the rookery in the Lake Martin Cypress Island Preserve.
What I expected to see that time of year was drainage, leading to lower water levels during the fall and winter and not what I found, and that is good. The photo below shows the drain gate installed in 2001. I don't like this photo because it looks like a solid metal top. Actually the top is constructed of an iron grate which allows water to drain into the top and also allows visual acessment of the operation of the drain.
A view from the top
Below is an image of me standing on top of the drain last summer, and gives a more accurate perspective of the drain size.
This past year, instead of pulling out panels and allowing the water levels to go down a couple of feet, someone had added a couple of the 6" panels to the top of the control structure and that caused the water levels in Lake Martin to rise.
For eight or nine years now, The Nature Conservancy and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries have been conducting an experiment designed to improve the water quality in the swamp and at the lake by lowering the water levels in the fall every year. They then promised to pump the water back in and restore the water level before the birds begin to nest in the spring. But wait... I see Great Blue Herons staging nesting sites in the middle of January before the pumps were even turned on! They have by my observations, failed to give back to the lake the water that they took away the season before.
As you can see in the photo below, they did turn on the pump on the north side of the lake in February 2009 and helped raise the water level a little.
But they failed to return the water to an acceptable level equal to what it was before they lowered it. And not enough to flood the grove of trees where the Great Blue Herons nested before the water was being lowered. As seen in the photos below.
The area along Rookery Road where the Great Blue Herons nested before the swamp was being drained
It is common knowledge that these wading birds nest in trees that grow in water year round because the water holds alligators and alligators protect the birds from predators that can swim and climb trees. These same predators will not swim in water with alligators because they will not survive if they do.
Below is a photo I took of the water line on a tree last summer, proving that the water is not being pumped or even allowed to rise nautally to the levels it was before the Nature Conservancy stated monkeying around with water levels
The Nature Conservancy claimed that it was OK to drain the lake and lower the water in the autumn season because it did not conflict or interfere with the nesting season in the spring. I disagree on that position because it is my belief that if it is not safe for birds to roost there all year long, the birds will not nest there in the spring.
Furthermore, the nesting season does not start in the spring, but at the beginning of winter when the Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets arrive in the second and third weeks of January and begin selecting nesting locations in the tops of tall cypress trees as seen in the photos below.
A Great Blue Heron rookery on the tops of trees near Lake Martin in an area where it is flooded year round in spite of the annual drainage 
Below is a photo of a large number and variety of nesting wading birds in an area where water is present year round.
Along with the drainage of the water to lower the water levels on this thousand acre wilderness area, I also have issues with the application of herbicides and the killing off of hundreds of acres of button bush and the floating mats of plants on three sides of Lake Martin as seen below in the photo which I took while on a swamp tour in April 2009.
Agent Orange herbicide damage to the floating mat of plants in Lake Martin
I am not only here at Lake Martin to share the visual natural beauty of our state with our visiting guests, I also have an obligation to protect the defenseless inhabitants of my wild Louisiana and at the same time educate the local public at large regarding the dangers of using 2-4-d, (a.k.a. Agent Orange) in our wilderness areas such as Lake Martin.
A Lake Martin Swamp Tour
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