Nebraska Game and Parks completes major Harlan Reservoir cove restoration funded largely by federal grant

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s South Central District announced that the Methodist Cove restoration at Harlan Reservoir — a roughly $10 million project funded largely by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers grant with supplemental funds from Nebraska’s aquatic habitat fund — is essentially finished and will reopen 50–60 acres of shoreline cove habitat for fish.

The project restored a permanently connected channel, removed buried sediment, installed shoreline armoring and breakwaters, and added thousands of pieces of fish habitat. Agency staff said the work will improve spawning and nursery habitat for shoreline-oriented species such as crappie and largemouth bass and provide new angler access and research opportunities.

Game and Parks said the federal portion covers about 75% of the project budget; the remaining roughly $2.5 million was paid from Nebraska’s aquatic habitat fund. The district reported the contractor dug an approximately 1,100-foot channel (about 200 feet wide) connecting the cove to the main reservoir down to elevation 1,936, installed a roughly 600-foot breakwater to deflect sediment, armored more than 1,000 feet of shoreline with rock, and created an upstream sediment basin to capture future inflows from Methodist Creek. Agency staff also removed large quantities of accumulated sediment from the cove to restore depth and allow fish passage at most reservoir elevations.

To expand structural habitat, the district placed several hundred large clusters of cedar trees in deeper water and installed more than 300 artificial “spider” structures and several thousand feet of rock jetties, baffles and other engineered habitat. Staff said they preserved some of the larger cedars in distinct locations inside the cove so researchers can evaluate which treatments best benefit crappie in coming years. The district plans to stock bluegill, bass and crappie into reconstructed areas and to monitor the site in partnership with the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

The district said the contractor encountered large buried tree stumps from timber logged when the reservoir was originally filled in the 1950s; removing that material was part of the work to reestablish usable depth in the cove. Agency staff described the project as one of the largest aquatic-habitat investments the state has made in dollar terms and said it leveraged angler dollars to obtain federal grant funding.

The district also acknowledged community contributions: Kearney resident Evan Folk rebuilt the Gremlin Fishing Pier as an Eagle Scout project this summer, replacing a pier destroyed in 2019 high water and saving state crews money on repairs.

Agency staff said remaining contractor punch-list items are minor and that research and monitoring will continue to measure fish response to the new habitat.