News

Rush For Brush is back for more

Feb 14, 2020

The GRDA Ecosystems Management Department places artificial fish habitats in Lake Hudson in this photo from 2017. GRDA has now set the 2020 “Rush for Brush” workshop dates for the lakes area.

Power for Progress… a weekly column from the Grand River Dam Authority.

The Grand River Dam Authority’s Rush for Brush program, which has won both state and national awards for its efforts to enhance the fish habitat on GRDA waters, returns to the shores of Grand Lake in 2020.

The program, which started over a decade ago with just a few volunteers and very little fanfare, has grown to be one of the most successful outreach programs conducted annually by the GRDA Ecosystems Management Department. Volunteers have always been the key to the program’s success and each year, those volunteers come from far and wide to help build the “spider block” artificial habitats.

This year’s workshops will take place on Saturday March 14 (Wolf Creek Park in Grove) and Saturday May 9 (GRDA Ecosystems and Education Center in Langley). Both events start at 9AM.

In November 2017 the program received the “State Government Program” award from Keep Oklahoma Beautiful (KOB) and in May of 2018, it was awarded the National Hydropower Association’s  (NHA) “Outstanding Stewards of America’s Waters” award. In both cases, the innovative approach to enhancing the fisheries was highlighted.

Today, thousands of artificial fish habits can be found in the waters of GRDA’s Grand and Hudson lakes, all placed there by GRDA or the many volunteers who have helped to build them over the years. You can view the locations of several of those habitats by visiting the online map on the Environmental Stewardship tab at grda.com.

For more information on this year’s program workshops, contact GRDA’s Jacklyn Jaggars at (918) 256 0723 or via email at jjaggars@grda.com.

GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Each day, GRDA strives to be an “Oklahoma agency of excellence” by focusing on the 5 E’s: electricity, economic development, environmental stewardship, employees and efficiency.

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