FALSE RIVER - This week, False River's fourth drawdown in ten years began, officials said it will help maintain the lake's health.

Officials with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said the False River has a large watershed, about 30,000 acres feeding into a roughly 3,000 acre lake.

While opening and closing the gates to the lake's outflow channel is fairly common whenever it rains, this drawdown is different in that the gates stay open for a continuous amount of time.

Currently, one of the drawdown structure's three gates is open. LDWF Biologist Manager Brian Heimann said the gates are opened one at a time to allow for continuous water outflow.

"By opening just the first gate, letting the inch and a half go out for a period of time for two or three weeks. Eventually, head pressure starts to decrease, so they've got to open another gate to get to that inch-and-a-half rate," Heimann said.

Once the head pressure decreases, the third gate will be opened, maintaining that inch-and-a-half rate until drawdown ends on January 15. At which point, Heimann said the gates will close and rainfall will refill the lake.

Heimann said the drawdown will allow certain areas that are usually underwater to get exposed to air. This means the substrate, silt, mud and other materials, have a chance to firm up and compact, making a better surface for fish to build their habitats and nests. The drawdown also decreases water turbidity.

"Over the long term, compacting those sediments, when the water comes back, those sediments are less likely to resuspend into the water column," Heimann said. "Less turbidity means increased water clarity."

He added LDWF measures the health of False River through fish metrics.

"The fish that live in the lake, right? They're kind of like the canary in the coal mine," Heimann said. "Now that we've done some of these projects, we've seen size and classes expanding, we seen more fish, and bigger size classes. and the overall health of the lake improved."

The drawdown will bring the lake up to six feet below the pool stage.

"You might not notice it in a day or two, but you will over a couple weeks period of time," Pointe Coupee Parish President Major Thibaut said.

Thibaut said the reduced water levels should not bring damage to bulkheads or decks directly but might reveal problems hidden underwater.

"It's a good time like I said to patch up and fix up problems you may already have," Thibaut said.