Welcome to Watts Bar Lake Association

Watts Bar Lake in Tennessee

At 42,000 acres, Watts Bar Lake - "King of the Southern Lakes", is one of the south’s largest lakes and offers visitors great fishing, boating and recreation. The lake is 72 miles long and boasts 722 miles of shore line!

*Public Notice

TVA Funding Statement:

TVA no longer receives any appropriations to help with management of aquatic plants. This has led us to taking a more valley wide approach to management, and focusing our efforts only on public access areas (parks, boat ramps, etc.) to best meet the needs of our stakeholders. There is one exception to this currently: We continue to do residential and commercial shoreline management on Guntersville with the understanding that we will be slowly stepping down as the primary funding source in the next few years. This model is how we will handle stakeholder groups on other reservoirs from here on out. For example, should Watts Bar put together a stakeholder group and agree on management, the stakeholder group would need to have identified supplementary funding and obtained that funding before a similar plan would take place

Special Note: We are in the third and final year of fully funding the Guntersville program along residential and commercial shoreline. Next year, we fully anticipate to reduce funding by 1/3 and will continue that reduction through 2019. We will continue to fully fund
management efforts along developed, public shoreline.

Spring Lake Cleanup

NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Roger Hinsdale - President
(423) 452-0428
tennesseenavy@gmail.com
Watts Bar Lake 'River Rescue' and Shoreline Cleanup - Saturday, March 28, 2020
The Watts Bar Lake Association (WBLA), IJAMS Nature Center, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will sponsor the annual River Rescue shoreline cleanup on Saturday, March 28th, from 9 a.m. to noon. Volunteers are asked to meet at 8:30 a.m.
All who are interested in keeping the shoreline clean and beautiful should volunteer to help. Gloves, trash bags, grabbers and lunch will be furnished.
Rhea County participants will meet at Veterans Park in Spring City and are asked to contact Dan Uhler at (423) 240-6327 for information.
Meigs County participants will meet at Mr. Twister Restaurant in Ten Mile and are asked to contact Harry Smiley at (803) 640-7870 for information.
Roane County participants on the east side of the lake should contact Peter Giroux at (404) 304-1115 and will gather at Blue Springs Marina Boat Ramp. Folks in the Kingston area are asked to Contact Andy Holmbeck at (865) 801-6112 and will meet at The Gravel Pit Park.
Following the cleanup at 1:30pm, volunteers will be rewarded with lunch at Uncle Gus’ Mountain BBQ, located at 810 Peakland Rd, Ten Mile. Participants are encouraged to attend, meet new friends and share memorable moments of the day.
Highlights from the 2019 Clean-up
An eager and willing 57 volunteers showed up to participate in last year’s WBLA River Rescue and Shoreline event. In just three hours the group pulled an impressive 6,300 pounds of litter from the lake including bottles, cans, tires (49), and miscellaneous debris.

Please consider becoming a member of the Watts Bar Lake Association. Member dues are just $15.00 for single, and $30.00 a year for family.

Join us

Watts Bar Lake Association Founded in 1998

Invasive Species

The Exotic Zebra Mussel

by Amy J. Benson

Exotic Zebra Mussel by USFWS

The word "exotic" conjures up thoughts of faraway places where strange animals inhabit sun-drenched islands. But in the biological sciences realm, this word has come to be associated with unwelcome visitors to our shores. Over the past 500 years, more than 4,500 foreign species, including many harmful plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, and pathogens, have established populations in the United States.

The Silver Carp Report - WBEFC

All:

The Silver Carp Threat Report is now available through a link to the WBEFC website. http://wbefc.org/silver-carp-report/

These fish are the most serious and REAL threat to our lakes that has ever risen. It must not be downplayed or ignored. Every person who loves the TN river lakes must know the facts and get onboard to stop the silver carp. If we don't get enough folks to shout loudly, say goodbye to everything good about these lakes. Silver Carp are in Barkley and probably in Guntersville and moving this way fast.

Please get on board to help stop the silver carp from reaching our lakes. You can help by first doing two things:

Log on the WBEFC.ORG (Watts Bar Ecology and Fishery Council website), click on "Contact" and fill out the short form. There is NO cost for becoming a stakeholder in the ecological/fishery health of the TN River system. You will get only a few emails during the year which will be updates and new information on the status of the silver carp movement, and notices about meetings and presentations.
Please forward the link to everyone who loves and uses the lake and get them onboard also: http://wbefc.org/silver-carp-report/
I have developed a detailed PowerPoint presentation on how invasive species (plants and the silver carp) will devastate the ecology, fishery, recreation, and economic engine of the yet unaffected lakes of the TN River. I offer this to any group of over 25 individuals. The presentation is approximately 45 minutes in length and explains the science behind the ecological threat/devastation and what can be done to prevent it. If you would like the presentation, please contact me:

Thank You

Dr. Tim Joseph

timjosephphd@gmail.com