Lucy Park Becomes Bare To Avoid Flooding
By: Lindsey Wopschall
Updated: February 18, 2013
That's because the city of Wichita Falls is cleaning the park's overgrowth to avoid flooding.
A study completed in 2011 by the U.S. Geological Survey recommended to the city to clear out 90 percent of the vegetation after the 2007 flood in the Wichita Falls channel.
The park is the first area the city has started to clear out-.
City officials say a total of 15 mile of the river will be cleaned up, reaching from the railroad track west of tangle wood to two miles down stream by the confluent of Holiday Creek.
"All that vegetation has grown up and it basically makes it like pushing water through a sponge there is a lot of abstraction in there," said Russell Schreiber, of Wichita Falls Public Works.
Officials say they are completing the task before the end of February because the Migratory Bird Act prohibits it from March to August to protect the nesting habits of migratory birds.
