USACE Fort Worth Texas Responds
Chandler Sanford with our Lewisville Lake office asked that I respond to your email from earlier this year.
The Trinity River corridor between Ray Roberts and Lewisville Lake is managed as an Environmentally Sensitive Area and is designed to periodically contain flood waters as part of the Lewisville Lake and Ray Roberts flood risk management mission. This large area of 3,124 acres north of HWY 380 includes mature bottomland hardwoods, mature riparian corridor, and constructed shallow water wetlands managed by the City of Denton. Texas Parks and Wildlife Division manages the narrow portion of this area known as the Greenbelt Corridor. The Greenbelt Corridor provides both high-density recreational opportunities such as developed hiking, biking and equestrian trails and picnic sites, and lower density recreational opportunities such as natural surface trails, river fishing and nature study. USACE works cooperatively with the City of Denton, Denton County and TPWD to improve wildlife habitat values in the area, but the day-to-day management of these areas has been turned over to Denton County and TPWD.
The extremely wet years of 2015 and 2016 produced very high lake levels in both reservoirs; Lewisville Lake attained its highest elevation of record in late May of 2015. During this time, the use of the two lakes and the Greenbelt as a flood-control system were successfully demonstrated. The subsequent holding and discharge of flood waters created several log jams in the Greenbelt Corridor. The Texas Department of Transportation and other agencies removed an approximate 500 foot in length portion of the log jam to address operational concerns of those agencies.
Currently there is a large log jam in the Greenbelt corridor which is impacting recreational opportunities near the HWY 380 Bridge and the trail system in the City of Denton. As the log jam is not currently impacting either the flood risk management mission or water supply mission of either reservoir, USACE has not scheduled the clearing or removal of the log jam. While USACE does have primary responsibility for recreation in this area; that mission was turned over to Denton County and TPWD upon creation of the Greenbelt. USACE is in communication with Denton County and TPWD regarding the impacts of the log jam on recreation and has discussed potential funding sources and programs with them. – my highlighting -editor.
Give me a call or return email if needed. Thanks.
-Clay Church
Deputy Chief, Public Affairs
Fort Worth District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Cornerstone of the Southwest
[email protected]
Office: 817-886-1314
Fort Worth District website www.swf.usace.army.mil
Follow us on social media –> https://about.me/usacefortworth
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Category: Denton Trinity River Greenbelt Corridor
