Mitchell Lake

Mitchell Lake Audubon Center is located on the South side of Bexar County. “The land consists of the 600 acres of Mitchell Lake, 215 acres of wetland and ponds, and 385 acres of upland habitat.” (1) Mitchell Lake was discovered by Spanish settlers who gave it the name “Laguna de los Patos” which means “Lake of the Ducks.” “By the late 1800’s, the Mitchell family owned and used this area for waterfowl hunting.” Later on it was purchased by the City of San Antonio and turned into a waste dump. “In the late 1930’s the Rilling Toad Wastewater Treatment Plant was built upstream of the lake to handle increased capacity and to improve effluent water quality. The Rilling Road Wastewater Plant continued to discharge into the lake until 1987 when Dos Rios Water Treatment Plant came on-line.” (2)




While visiting Mitchell Lake, I was a little disappointed as to what I saw. I expected to see a well maintained bird resort. To start off with, while walking around I could hear what sounded like gun shots. The shots sounded like they were coming from the other side of the lake of where we were standing. I found it really strange because this is supposed to be a safe habitat for birds. Along the walking trails, I could see scraps of metal and piles of rocks just lying around. I don’t know if this is because they are doing construction but, I feel that it should be stored up safely to where no one can get access to it. Everywhere you look there are these long and thin stick looking things which need to be maintained. I also saw huge trees, trunk and all, lying within the lake and ponds. I feel that this is a really big turn off to the beauty in which the land has. On the good side of the trip, we saw various species living here. We didn’t see too many birds but, were able to see tons of frogs, snakes, flowers, and trees. We also enjoyed just walking around admiring nature.








I feel that Mitchell Lake has come along way within the years. But, I do feel they still need to make several changes to fix some problems. I recommend that the center cleans up the metal and piles of rocks lying around. People are going out to see a clean beautiful piece of land, not a dirty one. I feel that some of these trees need to be pulled out of the lake and ponds. Some of the trees need to stay for the birds to rest on but, too many trees are just an eye soar. I also feel that they need to shred the land. By shredding the land it will decrease the number of snakes. It will also eliminate the thick layer of moss that is on the ground. The workers could plant various plants and tress and it would also give the flowers a chance to grow.





Sources
1. http://www.tx.audubon.org/Mitchell_About.html
2. http://www.saws.org/environmental/mitchelllake/facts.shtml