Background; Lake Leota: "Cutting Back on Fish Cribs" or "How to Adopt a Fish Crib"

(Ed.note: This is the first of a series of background and in depth stories about the elements of the Preliminary Engineer's Opinion of Probable Costs of the Lake Leota Restoration.)


At the recent Evansville Common Council meeting to determine whether a referendum would be held on the Lake Leota Restoration, and decide what the language of that referendum would be, the breakdown of the costs were revealed---or rather revised. This is the first of a series discussing this.

Fish Cribs. It was a term I was not familiar with. If you click on the post you can see what they look like, and how they were used in the restoration of a lake in Chetek. In short.... If you are going to have a fish habitat...you need fish cribs. The previous cost estimate for Lake Leota had listed $1500 for this cost. According to the article on Chetek, the cost of each of these is $10.

Striving to cut costs and eliminate waste of any sort, the Engineers decided, and the Council also decided to cut back...on the fish cribs and thus on the fish. So---better put the fishing poles away.