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LA 4. Catahoula Lake. Acreage: 40,000 estimated. 



Location: La Salle Parish; Jena and Buckeye quadrangles; about 20 miles NEof 

 Alexandria. 



Description: A rim-swamp lake occupying a depression between bluffs on the 

 northwest and flanking levees elsewhere. It has an extreme variation of water 

 level of more than 40 ft and a normal seasonal variation of over 25 ft. In the dry 

 season (July to November) much of the lake bed is dry, traversed by the mean- 

 dering channel of the Little River. The following vegetation zones are found, 

 beginning at the margins: mixed hardwood, cypress, water elm-swamp privet, 

 dwarf shrub, and grassland. Especially noteworthy are the buttress bases of the 

 cypress trees growing at the lower elevations as a response to flooding of the 

 cypress zone. Water elm (Planera aquatica), swamp privet (Forestiera acu- 

 minata), water locust (Gleditsia aquatica), and cypress are listed in order of 

 abundance in the water elm-swamp privet zone. At lower elevations these spe- 

 cies become dwarf shrubs. The grass zone is occupied by annuals as the water 

 recedes. 



Publications: Brown, C. A. 1943. Vegetation and lake level correlations at 

 Catahoula Lake, Louisiana, Geogr. Rev. 33(3):435-445. 



Encroachments: Oil exploration; grazing. 



Ownership: BSFW and State of Louisiana, below mean high water. At least a 

 portion is a wild life preserve. 



Data source: Dr. Clair A. Brown, 1 180 Stanford Ave., Baton Rouge, La. 70708. 



