Lake Waco Wetlands: 180 Acres Born From Raising the Lake Seven Feet

Here's a piece of civic engineering most people drive past without knowing the story. In 1998 the Waco City Council voted to raise Lake Waco by seven feet to bank more water for a growing Central Texas — a rise that finally came in 2003 and flooded a lot of shoreline habitat. Federal rules said the lost wetland had to be replaced, so the city built a new one: roughly 180 acres of constructed marsh out on Eichelberger Crossing Road, northwest of town near where the North Bosque comes in.

It turned out to be more than a box checked. Water from the North Bosque (the river that feeds most of Lake Waco's inflow and carries runoff from the dairy country upstream) runs through the marsh, where plants and slow water scrub it before it reaches the reservoir. A Research and Education Center opened in 2004, and Baylor researchers and school groups use the place as a living laboratory.

For everyone else, it's about 3.5 miles of quiet trails and boardwalks, free to walk, and one of the better spots in McLennan County to stand still and watch herons, ducks, and dragonflies work the water.