02-05-2015, 05:38 PM
News
LAKE PERRIS: Lowered level reveals famed tire reef
Receding waters from drought and dam work reveal fish habitat — the legendary ‘reef’ crafted from tractor tires — and sunken boats for the first time in decades.
n the 40 years that Gary Robson has been fishing Lake Perris, he’s never seen the legendary tire reef exposed.
Until now.
Protracted drought, combined with a mandated lowering of the water for dam repairs, has dropped the lake 40 vertical feet, the lowest level since the reservoir opened in 1973.
The receding water has exposed a cache of treasures long hidden from human view, including boats, trees and dozens of Stonehenge-like tires.
Drought-shrunken lakes across the state have been revealing their past. In Lake Shasta, there were railroad lines, remnants of towns and Indian villages, and an early 18th-century locomotive.
The Lake Perris tires came from earth movers and other equipment that built the dam with rock blasted off a nearby hillside, said Joel Dinnauer, a state park peace officer. Flat and damaged tires were piled up and used to create hiding spots for fish once the lake was filled.
The tire reef is popular among anglers who visit the Lake Perris State Recreation Area, which sits in a valley between Moreno Valley and Perris. The lake is the southern end of the State Water Project, the series of canals that carries most of the Inland region’s drinking water from Northern California.
Fishermen never saw the tires before, but they had them marked on their GPS as a primo spot for snagging bass, catfish, trout and bluegill.
“I’ve never seen the tires out of water before until the last two months,” said Robson, 62, a custom cabinet maker from Riverside who fishes Perris at least once week.
When full, the lake is at 1,588 feet elevation. The level was lowered 25 feet in 2005 after seismic concerns were raised about a section of the dam’s foundation. Work on a retrofitting project recently began after years of design work, environmental clearances and permitting.
Then, from September to December, more water was drawn off the lake to supply drinking water for Riverside County homes and businesses because of shortages on the State Water Project.
The lake now stands at 1,548 feet.
The tractor tires stretch along what is now exposed shoreline on the southern edge of the lake, past the landmark Alessandro Island.
Some of the tires, Firestone industrials, are almost 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide, lashed three together with yellow rope and tilted on their edges. Others are sunk flat like giant doughnuts in the murky green water.
The purpose of the habitat is multifold, said Quinn Granfors, an environmental scientist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife office in Winchester.
It provides shelter for small fish to hide from predators, gives those predators a place to feed and provides spawning ground for catfish.
http://www.pe.com/articles/lake-759633-water-tires.html
LAKE PERRIS: Lowered level reveals famed tire reef
Receding waters from drought and dam work reveal fish habitat — the legendary ‘reef’ crafted from tractor tires — and sunken boats for the first time in decades.
n the 40 years that Gary Robson has been fishing Lake Perris, he’s never seen the legendary tire reef exposed.
Until now.
Protracted drought, combined with a mandated lowering of the water for dam repairs, has dropped the lake 40 vertical feet, the lowest level since the reservoir opened in 1973.
The receding water has exposed a cache of treasures long hidden from human view, including boats, trees and dozens of Stonehenge-like tires.
Drought-shrunken lakes across the state have been revealing their past. In Lake Shasta, there were railroad lines, remnants of towns and Indian villages, and an early 18th-century locomotive.
The Lake Perris tires came from earth movers and other equipment that built the dam with rock blasted off a nearby hillside, said Joel Dinnauer, a state park peace officer. Flat and damaged tires were piled up and used to create hiding spots for fish once the lake was filled.
The tire reef is popular among anglers who visit the Lake Perris State Recreation Area, which sits in a valley between Moreno Valley and Perris. The lake is the southern end of the State Water Project, the series of canals that carries most of the Inland region’s drinking water from Northern California.
Fishermen never saw the tires before, but they had them marked on their GPS as a primo spot for snagging bass, catfish, trout and bluegill.
“I’ve never seen the tires out of water before until the last two months,” said Robson, 62, a custom cabinet maker from Riverside who fishes Perris at least once week.
When full, the lake is at 1,588 feet elevation. The level was lowered 25 feet in 2005 after seismic concerns were raised about a section of the dam’s foundation. Work on a retrofitting project recently began after years of design work, environmental clearances and permitting.
Then, from September to December, more water was drawn off the lake to supply drinking water for Riverside County homes and businesses because of shortages on the State Water Project.
The lake now stands at 1,548 feet.
The tractor tires stretch along what is now exposed shoreline on the southern edge of the lake, past the landmark Alessandro Island.
Some of the tires, Firestone industrials, are almost 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide, lashed three together with yellow rope and tilted on their edges. Others are sunk flat like giant doughnuts in the murky green water.
The purpose of the habitat is multifold, said Quinn Granfors, an environmental scientist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife office in Winchester.
It provides shelter for small fish to hide from predators, gives those predators a place to feed and provides spawning ground for catfish.
http://www.pe.com/articles/lake-759633-water-tires.html
Let God lead the way!
Give a man a fish he eats for one day, teach him to fish he eats forever!
Give a man a fish he eats for one day, teach him to fish he eats forever!
