Fish Ecology – August 18

“Lakes and fishing go hand and hand in Texas, but swim under the surface and the environmental history of Texas freshwater ecosystems becomes cloudy indeed. Texas has only one natural lake, and the current assemblage of fish found in Texas reservoirs represents a long and winding history of human intervention, often with surprising twists and turns. My looking at reservoirs like Proctor Lake, the fish that live there, and the ecological niches they fill, we can better understand how natural resource management agencies have changed the freshwater landscape of Texas forever and created one of the most commercially-important freshwater fisheries in the country.”

Kyle Watters is a Park Ranger for the US Army Corps of Engineers. He began working for the Corps at Proctor Lake in 2018, where he often found himself waist deep in supporting recreational angling at the reservoir. Kyle is a Texas Angler Instructor and often leads fish ecology and Angling 101 workshops. Kyle completed undergrad at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and is currently working on his Masters of Wildlife Science at Texas A&M. Despite originally being from Wisconsin, Kyle married a Texas girl in Stephenville and is fixin’ to stay in the Lone Star State.