TVA completed a Natural Resource Management Plan and accompanying Environmental Impact Statement in 1994. Congress permitted the Forest Service to utilize this plan, as appropriate, until a new Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) can be completed.

The major objectives of the Natural Resource Management Plan is to restore and/or improve natural resources of LBL to provide a wide variety of opportunities for outdoor recreation, environmental education, and interpretation for a rapidly urbanizing society. An additional objective for the resource management program is for the creation of habitat diversity. Various plant and animal communities are associated with different stages of succession; therefore, landscapes with a variety of habitats will be more diverse than one at a single stage of succession.

FOREST LAND
The forest is managed to perpetuate an attractive setting for outdoor recreation and environmental education programs. Diversified wildlife habitat and aesthetics are managed by controlling forest species composition, age class distribution, harvest size, and disbursement of harvest areas. Work areas serve as the unit for scheduling silvicultrual treatments. Treatments include timber harvest, reforestation, timber stand improvement, development of waterholes, planting to control erosion, and maintaining fire control access trails. The forest management objective to obtain habitat diversity includes managing approximately 10 percent of the forest in old growth stands; 56 percent in sawtimber stands, 15 percent in poles; 15 percent in young growth and sapling, and 4 percent planted pine. Included in the old growth stand acreage will be natural areas and ecology study areas and selectively marked stand to favor longevity of the large-diameter trees.

OPEN LAND
Approximately 12,500 acres of open land is maintained to produce wildlife food and cover, to demonstrate innovative agricultural and soil erosion control techniques, to improve the aesthetic value of the landscape, and to provide recreational and educational opportunities for visitors. All open land that is not developed for intensive recreation use and does not have serious erosion limitations is maintained to improve wildlife habitat. These lands are managed by farming, periodic bushhogging, disking, burning, or other approved treatment.

Aesthetics. Lands managed for aesthetics are identified according to the following classification scheme: meadow, meadow/woods edge, vistas, flowering meadow, open meadow, sedge meadow, and lawn.

Agricultural Cropland. Private farmers, on a sharecropping basis, conduct farming in LBL. Through the cooperative program the farmer raises crops and leaves a share (up to 20 percent) in the field for wildlife food and cover or performs services such as bushhogging if advantageous to both the farmer and LBL. Row crops such as corn, millet, milo, sunflowers, and soybeans are planted on a rotation basis to take advantage of soil disturbance and annual weed succession.

Utility and Road Rights of Way. Two electricity transmission lines, three gas transmission lines, and approximately 400 miles of roads exist in LBL. The electric and gas lines are located primarily through forested lands and are managed for the benefit of wildlife. The gas line is maintained by the Michigan-Wisconsin Pipeline Company and is mowed annually, usually during June after the peak of turkey nesting. The electric transmission lines are maintained by TVA Power and are managed for deer browse production.

Kentucky and Barkley Reservoirs. Kentucky Reservoir is the last downstream impoundment of nine on the Tennessee River. It was impounded in 1944 by TVA and is the largest manmade lake in the southeastern United States. The surface area at full pool is approximately 160,000 acres with some 2,380 miles of shoreline. The water is normally maintained between 359- and 354-foot elevations although the top of Kentucky Dam gates is 375 feet in elevation.

Barkley Reservoir is the last downstream impoundment of five on the Cumberland River. It was impounded in 1965-66 by the Corps of Engineers. The surface area at full pool is approximately 58,000 acres with some 1,420 miles of shoreline. Like Kentucky Lake, the water is normally maintained between 359- and 354-foot elevations, with the top of Barkley Dam at 375 feet in elevation.

A 1.5 mile navigation canal near the dams just south of Grand Rivers, Kentucky, joins both reservoirs. Because these reservoirs are connected, it is necessary to maintain them at similar water levels throughout the year.

The States are responsible for managing the fisheries resources within the waters of their respective State boundaries. In the case of reservoirs constructed by TVA or the Corp of Engineers, there is an implied mandate for these Federal agencies to assist States in managing the fisheries resources. LBL maintains a close working relationship with all responsible agencies in the management and development of the fishery and aquatic resources.

Sub-Impoundments and Inland Impoundments. Within LBL there are three earthen dams across embayments to form Honker, Energy, and Bards sub-impoundments. These were constructed to provide more constant water levels for recreational purposes and are generally maintained at 359 feet in elevation. Each sub-impoundment has an intake slide gate so that water levels can be manipulated.

Hemitate Lake, an impoundment of Long Creek, was built in 1940. Duncan Lake, an impoundment of Duncan Creek, was constructed in 1979 as part of the Wildlife Restoration Center. Bards Lake, an inland impoundment of Bards Creek, Honker Lake, an inland impoundment of Long Creek, and Energy Lake, an impoundment of Crooked Creek were constructed in 1965.

Streams and Springs. LBL has approximately 52 streams draining some 450 miles. These streams receive runoff from unusually small watershed basins because of the short distance between the two impounded rivers, resulting in many streams with intermittent flow. A 1969 survey of LBL springs found 131 springs and categorized them as four types:

Nineteen were free flowing into streams year-round. Twenty-nine were trickle flowing into streams during dry periods. Thirty-four were seep springs occasionally flowing but with small pools. Forty-nine were seasonal springs that became dry part of the year.

Ponds and Waterholes. There are approximately 750 water bodies that are classified as either ponds or wildlife waterholes. TVA constructed approximately one-half of the waterholes with the spacing such that there is water for wildlife throughout the year at approximate 1/2-mile intervals or less. Other manageable ponds (approximately 70) were constructed by former landowners. Three fishing ponds were constructed in 1977-78 at Hillman Ferry Campground, Piney Campground, and at the Golden Pond Visitor Center.

WILDLIFE
The goal of the wildlife management program is to develop and manage the wildlife resources to enhance the multiple-use aspects of LBL. Management is directed towards all species of wildlife, which allows for extensive consumptive (hunting) and non-consumptive (observation and photography) use by the public.

Waterfowl. Large populations of both ducks and geese winter in LBL and in the nearby Tennessee, Mississippi, and Ohio Valleys. LBL assists in the development of suitable habitat to encourage wintering waterfowl populations; however, other agencies have a primary role in waterfowl management. These include Horseshoe Lake and Union County Wildlife Management Area in southern Illinois, Ballard County Wildlife Management Area, and the new Clark's River NWR in western Kentucky on the Ohio River, the Smithland Island Management Unit with management of waterfowl on Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake, and two federal refuge areas in Tennessee, the Cross Creeks and the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge. LBL assists in the management of open water areas; construction of inland feeding areas with water level controls; providing artificial nesting islands, rafts, and other structures; and the cultivation of food crops in the near refuge and hunting areas.

Upland Wildlife. Wildlife management is directed primarily toward manipulation of open and forested lands in an effort to provide adequate food, water, and cover. Habitat manipulation activities are performed to benefit forest wildlife such as woodland songbirds, small forest-dwelling mammals, wild turkeys, squirrels, and deer. This is accomplished through scheduled timber harvest; timber stand improvement; special wildlife food plantings; the cooperative farming program; and establishment of woods openings, waterholes, and cover plantings. Farm wildlife management activities are incorporated into the management of open lands and adjacent forested lands as appropriate. The objectives of farm game management are accomplished primarily through the integration of the maintenance of open land; the cooperative farming program; the forest management program; and the farm game management unit program, which are locations where intensive management practices are applied in order to maximize targeted species or in combination, such as quail, rabbits, doves, and non-game birds.

BIOSPHERE RESERVE
In March of 1988 Land Between The Lakes received final recommendation for the establishment of the site as part of the biosphere reserve program. The Man and the Bioshpere (MAB) Programme, launched in 1971, is a worldwide programme of international scientific co-operation dealing with people-environment interactions in the whole range of bio-climatic and geographic situations of the biosphere. The range extends from polar to tropical zones, from islands and coastal areas to high mountain regions, from sparsely populated regions to dense human settlements. Research under the MAB Programme is designed to provide the information needed to solve practical problems of resource management. It also aims to fill the still significant gaps in the understanding of the structure and functions of ecosystems, and of the impact of different types of human intervention.

LBL agreed to set aside 24 core watershed areas that presented a unique system for studying landscape fragmentation and old growth/managed area issues. Four major watersheds combined with smaller preserve areas created a core area system totaling 5,725 ha (42,500 acres). The remaining 63,072 ha within LBL would be buffer area. Currently there are no formal monitoring studies conducted on the LBL core areas.

No timber harvest or open land maintenance activities would be performed in the core areas. Managed quota hunts for small game species, such as deer and turkey would continue as well as low impact forms of recreation such as hiking.

Recommended readings: (available in Golden Pond library)

• Final Environmental Impact Statement: the Natural Resources Management Plan at Land Between The Lakes. Volume I. October 1994.

• Luther, Edward T. 1977 Our Restless Earth: The Geologic Regions of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee Press.