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Long an exceptional fresh water fishery and a haven for ducks, wading birds and other wildlife, Lake Livingston is nearly 60 years old. It has lost much of its aquatic habitat and the water quality has declined. Once a destination for bass anglers, there has seen a precipitous decline in angling activity. Recreation on Lake Livingston is a major economic engine for numerous surrounding communities and the decline in the fishery has negatively affected local revenues.

The long-term goal of the project is to increase the abundance and diversity of native aquatic plant species and riparian habitat in and around Lake Livingston, TX, thereby improving littoral habitat conditions for the fish community and other aquatic life. Texas Parks & Wildlife has proposed that a successful restoration will need to cover 5% - (4,250 acres) of the lake and/or shoreline habitat.

Friends of Lake Livingston is restoring habitat for fish and wildlife populations by adding aquatic and riparian plants to create feeding and breeding grounds and reducing erosion.

Due to a previous grant from Mossback in 2018, the project introduced 3 Trophy Reef’s into the lake. Further, with input from FOR during the last national FOR meeting, and TPWD, the Friends of Lake Livington project added construction of Georgia Cubes in 2019 for the very first time. 7 Georgia Cubes were built by our high school volunteers and introduced at two sites in the lake in early 2020. GPS coordinates for all sites were placed on the TPWD website for Lake Livingston.

Feedback from the local community has been very strong both with publication and promotion of the initial Mossback Trophy Reef’s and the Georgia Cubes. Articles were placed in both of our newsletters and in the Polk County Enterprise newspaper in Livingston, TX. Our Texas Parks & Wildlife advisor has strongly encouraged expansion of the artificial reef component of the project noting it has immediate near term benefits affecting fish habitat.

Reef/Fish Habitat construction and introduction supplements the aquatic plant introduction component of the project. It also provides an additional way to illustrate required fish habitat as part of the ecology education given at the local high schools.

Texas Parks & Wildlife is directly involved with the Friends of Lake Livingston project. They publish GPS coordinates for all introduced reefs on their TPWD website for Lake Livingston. Both TPWD and the Trinity River Authority coordinate the site selection. The Friends of Lake Livingston volunteer team coordinates planning, construction of both Mossback Reef’s and Georgia Cubes and participates with TPWD and TRA when the habitats are put into the lake.

Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPWD) approves all plants that we propagate and introduce into Lake Livingston. Additionally, both TPWD and the Trinity River Authority (TRA), approve all planting sites. Both participate with all of our volunteer school plantings providing boats, personnel and equipment.

Additionally, TPWD and the TRA approve and help us introduce artificial reef habitats into the lake. They provide construction guidance and boats for reef introduction. TPWD publishes the reef GPS coordinates on their website for Lake Livingston.

An associated lake habitat management plan helps guide the Friends of Lake Livingston project. It can be found at:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/lake_survey/pwd_rp_t3200_1326_2016.pdf

Largemouth Bass
White Crappie
Black Crappie
Bluegill
Other sunfish species

Outreach - FoLL has built a broad outreach plan that includes:
• Updated website – friendsoflakelivington.com
• Active Facebook site updates
• Bi-annual community newsletter
• Posting of activity in local community newspapers
• Yearly Ecology outreach to our 8 participating local high school agriculture programs
• Education on lake ecology, littoral habitat, lake conservation, horticulture, active plant propagation in supplied propagation tanks, invertebrate monitoring, riparian habitat restoration and water quality testing
• Yearly instruction of Texas Master Naturalist concepts at the Texas Dept. of Corrections Lee College horticulture program including lake ecology, plant propagation, and supplied propagation tanks
o Video’s of the FoLL effort were produced by the Ellis Unit over the last 3 years documenting master naturalist instruction and the Friends of Lake Livingston conservation project. Each video was entered into the annual Texas Master Naturalists conference video contest and won 1st place in 2017, 2018 and 2019