A donation from FLW Outdoors will help make a championship fishery in Alabama even better.
In the wake of the 2004 Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship held Aug. 11-14 on Logan Martin Lake near Birmingham, Ala., FLW Outdoors made a $5,000 donation to go toward habitat enhancements and restoration. The donation was made on the final day of the world’s most lucrative professional bass-fishing championship.
Over the course of the four-day tournament, Logan Martin generously offered up 945 bass weighing a total of 1,691 pounds to the full field of pros and co-anglers competing in the season-ending tournament. The donation – made by FLW Outdoors through the FishAmerica Foundation, the conservation arm of the American Sportfishing Association – aims to give a little back to the host reservoir.
“This seed money will help us launch a project soon on Logan Martin Lake,” Steve Rider, Aquatic Habitat Coordinator for the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, said. “When we get the program going, we’ll get the equipment and go out there and initiate the program.”
Rider said his fisheries division is planning for the statewide Aquatic Habitat Enhancement and Restoration Program to kick off in spring 2005. The program will consist of multiple components, the major two being a flat-water component – lakes and reservoirs – and a moving-water component – rivers and streams.
The flat-water component will establish “long, sustainable habitats” in aging reservoirs that will provide food, cover and spawning areas for sport fish, Rider said. Introducing new habitat provides shelter for not only sport fish, but also for smaller fish, which in turn provide forage for bass and other species that “increase angling opportunities,” he said. New habitats will include everything from brush piles and cut trees to native aquatic vegetation.
Other plans for the Aquatic Habitat Enhancement and Restoration Program include projects like placing riprap along the banks and shorelines of fisheries, which helps mitigate the effects of erosion and otherwise protect targeted bodies of water.
“I’m excited about it,” Rider said of the donation. “It helps us forge partnerships, and if we need to get any type of small equipment, gas for boats, whatever. Volunteers and bass clubs really come out when they see others are donating.”
Other organizations and fishing clubs in the area have already expressed interest in participating in the statewide habitat restoration and enhancement program, Rider said.
“We look at this as a potential for partnership, which is critical to the program,” he said.
Funding from the FLW Outdoors donation will be used specifically for developing new habitats in Logan Martin Lake.
In 2000, FLW Outdoors announced its partnership with the FishAmerica Foundation and has since directly donated more than $200,000 – and helped to generate more than $1 million – for local conservation projects. FLW Outdoors donated $5,000 for each of the seven FLW Tour events held in 2004 as well as for some of the other tournaments among its six competitive fishing circuits.
