Work Groups

Watts Bar Ecology and Fishery Council Work Groups
The WBEFC has five separate Work-Groups (WG). Each WG has a Chair, and work is accomplished with the help of stakeholders and anyone wishing to assist. An individual does not have to be a stakeholder to assist in WG activities. Information, recommendations, advice, and any and all related material is welcome.
If you are interested in assisting any Work Group, click on “Contact” in the Home Page menu and send a note to us. Or, you can directly Email your wish to: wbefc@outlook.com.
We invite your participation and expertise.
The Work-Groups include:
  1. Funding, Grants, Contracts. This WG is striving to determine all “Potential” funding possibilities in two areas:
    • Obtaining funding to assist in meeting the expenses to support the activities of the WBEFC. These costs include Net Site development fees, meeting room fees, 501c application costs, postage, information flyers, reproduction costs, possible guest speaker fees, travel costs, potential facilitator costs, educational and training materials costs, etc.
    • Identifying funding sources to implement the recommendations and solutions developed by the WBEFC to control the invasive aquatic plants. Possible sources include all State, Federal and local agency potential sources, private funding, potential taxes, potential use fees related to recreation on Watts Bar Lake, and any and all other possibilities to fund the cost of control.
  2. Communications and Public Outreach. This WG is responsible for keeping the Council up to date on all activities of the WBEFC and the WBEFC Board of Directors. As well, it is the arm of the WBEFC that communicates with all stakeholders and the general public. This WG communicates by:
    • Placing information about upcoming meetings in local newspapers, and social media.
    • Maintaining an Email list of all those wishing to receive WBEFC information through Email.
    • Disseminating information to the public about updates and activities through meetings, newsletters, etc. Members of the public do not need to be on the stakeholder list to receive updates on Council activities and accomplishments. Any person will receive Council information merely by being on the Email list. One can get on the list by sending an Email to: wbefc@outlook.com and request that they be place on the WBEFC email distribution list.
  3. Stakeholders. This WG is identifying all potential Watts Bar Lake stakeholders and inviting them to join the WBEFC Stakeholder group. This includes all organizations, marinas, Home Owners Associations, Lake Organizations, Political Organizations, Sportsman’s/Recreational Organizations, and any club or property owner interested in the ecological health of Watts Bar Lake.
  1. Technical Advisory Group (TAG). The TAG is responsible for collecting and analyzing information, data, research, and past studies, successes, and failures at other lakes with similar invasive aquatic plant problems in order to develop recommendations and solutions specific to Watts Bar Lake. The workgroup is comprised primarily of individuals with technical expertise or experience in fisheries, aquatic ecology, limnology, chemistry, toxicology, and other related sciences. It will draft a short-term recommendation and then a long-term plan to reduce and control the invasive aquatic plants and promote a healthy lake ecology.
    It will provide as much detail as possible on limitations and unknowns related to both the short and long-term recommendations, along with possible recommendations related to those limitations/unknowns. The TAG will reach out to university/college, State, and Federal scientists and experienced professionals, as well as officials and individuals with experience from other lakes having similar problems, and attempt to find consensus regarding recommendations for Watts Bar Lake.
  1. Lessons Learned: Past Success/Failure. This WG is responsible for discovering, reviewing, compiling and summarizing all information, data, past studies, and research related to invasive aquatic plants in other lake systems, as well as general research in the area of aquatic plant control, and effects on fishing habitats and the ecology of Watts Bar Lake. It will document details regarding successful control measures as well as how successful control measures relate to Watts Bar Lake, and in doing so identify the major differences in successful control measure as they might relate to Watts Bar. This WG will also attempt to assess the parallels between failures in those lake systems, with Watts Bar lake.