Preliminary model data for lake level gate operation and discharge at Reelfoot Lake - Tennessee and Kentucky

Reelfoot Lake, in northwestern Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky, is home to a Federal wildlife refuge, a State wildlife-management area, and to a tourism industry that is based on hunting, fishing, birding, and the area’s unique cultural history. In 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, began a series of hydrologic investigations to support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in managing lake level. The objective was to develop operational models that preserved the historic patterns of variability that had characterized the lake for the past 60 years while meeting seasonal water-level targets (Heal and others, 2022). Preliminary models for gate operations at the new outlet [...]