Sometimes you never know how being in the right place at the right time
can produce a solution to a problem! This happened to me during a visit
to the Centerpoint High School Agriculture Department, in October 2008,
to check on the progress being made on some projects the students were
building for me. This was my only purpose for stopping by the Agri Shop
that morning, but I was about to get an offer for a solution to a
problem I had been working on for some time as a biologist for the
Ouachita Project Management Office.
For the past 30 years or so, the Corps has been constructing fish
attractors from discarded Christmas trees, cull hardwood brush and even
old automobile tires, to produce shelters for various species of game
fish. Our biggest provider of Christmas trees was the Hunter Christmas
Tree Farm in the nearby community of Manchester. We had just recently
completed the job of cutting and removing the last of the Virginia Pine
trees deemed too large to sell. The farm was going out of business due
to the owner’s retirement, and would leave the Corps looking for another
source of fish attractor material.
As I entered the Centerpoint Agri shop, I asked one of the students to
direct me to Jerry Fendley’s office. This was Jerry’s first year at
Centerpoint and I had not yet met him. After the introductions, we moved
to the shop area where we discussed other matters; as I was about to
leave, the conversation turned to fishing. Jerry is an avid crappie
fisherman and wanted to know if he could build a few crappie condos for
Degray Lake. Crappie condo is a “localized” slang term for bamboo
structures built with a 5 gallon bucket of concrete as a base. We
discussed the protocol for members of the public adding fish shelters to
our lakes. As we discussed fishing on our three Arkansas lakes, I
couldn’t help but notice the beehive-like activity of several
Centerpoint Agri students working on various projects all over the
spacious shop area. While Jerry continued to talk about his passion for
fishing, my mind was beginning to envision these same students building
crappie condos – lots of crappie condos!!
Thomas Edison may have summed up the situation best when he said,
“Opportunity is missed by many people because it is dressed in overalls
and looks like work.” I remember interrupting Jerry’s fishing stories to
see what he thought about getting his students involved in building
additional crappie condos during their “shop time.”
A few days later, after permission was granted for the students of his
natural resource management (NRM) class to take on the project, a
partnership was established. Personnel from both Lake Greeson and Degray
Lake would provide enough quickrete to build a hundred condos. Students
would solicit buckets from logging contractors, lumber mills, auto
mechanic shops and even some restaurants in the area. All buckets
containing petroleum products were pressure washed to clean out the
residue before adding the bamboo and concrete. Bamboo, growing on an
area located near the school, was donated to the school to finish out
the materials list.
Fendley’s NRM students, 20 in number, started construction on the condos
on February 10. The project consumed about 750 hours which included
gathering the bamboo, cutting it into specified lengths and adding it to
the buckets of concrete. In all, just fewer than 200 condos were
completed. Several of the students were able to spend a few hours on the
lake with Corps personnel during the placement stage of the project. The
condos were dropped at pre-determined sites in Degray Lake and Lake
Greeson. Amy Spence, one of the young ladies in the class, had this
comment about the project, “Last year, when we were working with the
Corps building crappie condos, I had a lot of fun. Working with the guys
and getting to actually go out on the Corps’ barge and help put them in
the lake was super fun!” Amy has decided she will major in biology when
she enters college in the fall of 2011.
The crappie condo partnership has been featured on crappie.com, one of
the most popular websites for fishermen wanting to exchange information.
Listed under Forums, there have been more than 13,000 hit from
approximately 20 states, as far away as Iowa and Illinois for Building
Fish Habitat on Lake Greeson and Degray. Some posted notable comments
include: “My FFA chapter, many, many moons ago never did a project that
neat”; “The cooperation is a textbook example of how it should be for
sure!!” One individual from Texas, when he heard the concrete mixer at
the school needed repairs, posted: “If we can pitch in a few bucks to
help fix it, please let me know or maybe we can rent you one.”
Jerry Fendley states, “This project has, be far, been the most popular
project I have ever been a part of since entering the teaching field. We
have had more positive comments from our community on this than any
other project we have worked on and I hope it becomes an annual part of
my natural resources management class here at Centerpoint.”
Johnny Cantrell, biologist for the
Ouachita Project Management Office.