26 May 2022

Sutton Lake Chestnut Orchard

The Sutton Lake Project partnered with the American Chestnut Foundation and GSC to plant American Chestnut trees. Thirty-six seedings were planted at our new Chestnut orchard.

13 Oct 2021

AmeriCorps Volunteer Team

The Sutton Lake staff successfully acquired eight days of assistance from an AmeriCorps Volunteer Team to focus on trail building. AmeriCorps, a federal agency for community service and volunteerism missions are to unite individuals and organizations, strengthen communities, and positively impact lives.

26 Apr 2021

Sutton Lake Trails

The Sutton Lake Project has many trails in the woodlands of central West Virginia.  Many of the trails are located near the Sutton Dam, and northeast in the Gerald R. Freeman campground there are additional hiking adventure trails. Before starting your hike, be sure and check out West Virginia’s native plant species in our new pollinator garden located near Sutton Dam.

8 Mar 2021

Native Pollinator Garden at Sutton Lake

Pollinators and plants are inextricably linked.  A population decline of one would result in a population decline of the other. For that reason, Sutton Lake in Sutton, WV, has formed a partnership with a local garden club to create a native pollinator garden featuring plant species native to West Virginia.

10 Feb 2021

Life Jacket Loaner Station

A life jacket is essential gear near or around water and is used for keeping a person afloat.  The Sutton Lake Project received Sea Tow Foundation Life Jackets for the 2020 boating season and built a Life Jacket Loaner Station.  The Sutton Lake Life Jacket Loaner Station was placed at Bee Run beach area to be available to anyone needing a life jacket. 

23 Jul 2020

Sutton Waterline Project

Sutton crews place a waterline vault in the downstream area of Sutton Dam. This was a major portion of a two-phase waterline project for the Sutton Dam, office, maintenance area, and the downstream recreation area. It replaces the old waterline supplying those areas.

28 Oct 2019

Sutton Lake Biological Surveys

Huntington District's Water Quality Team, EC-GW-W cooperated with the WV DNR, WV DEP, and the USFWS downstream of Sutton Lake on the Elk River to maximize opportunities related to the shutdown of the outflow for the scheduled PI. Flow was shut down at the dam in order to allow inspections of the tunnels and outlet structure by USACE personnel. Staff from the separate state and federal resource agencies worked together to conduct both fish surveys and mussel assessments downstream of the dam. The combination of the shutdown and the surveys drew a crowd and allowed a great opportunity for outreach to our stakeholders.

10 May 2019

Junior Ranger Program

​Burnsville Lake assisted Sutton Lake with their Junior Ranger Program last week by teaching the students about the wildlife of West Virginia and how it relates to being a Park Ranger. Additionally, the students got to meet a special guest, a leucistic black rat snake, while learning how to identify venomous and non-venomous snakes found in their area.

29 Oct 2018

Science and Sutton Lake go hand in hand!

​We are excited about our partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and WV DNR on this mussel study! USFWS, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the WVDNR partnered together to test the feasibility of extensively culturing freshwater mussels in three U.S. Army Corps of Engineer reservoirs in WV. USFWS and the WVDNR placed three cages with ~30 Largemouth bass infested with Pocketbook glochidia (larval mussels) in Sutton reservoir on 6/7/2018.

21 May 2018

Sutton Lake's Rake the Lake 2018

The rain cleared Saturday morning to offer up beautiful weather for another successful Rake the Lake! From the shore, kayak, and boat, trash and debris was removed in an attempt to keep Sutton Lake one of the most beautiful lakes in West Virginia! A huge thanks to our wonderful volunteers and sponsors who made this event such a success! See you next year!

13 Apr 2018

Sutton Lake Volunteers

Thanks to our volunteers, our campgrounds are officially open! Gerald R. Freeman, Bakers Run and Bee Run campgrounds now welcome campers for the season! All boat launches are officially open as well.

26 Sep 2017

Sutton Lake Honors Six Distinguished Volunteers

During the Annual Sutton Lake Volunteer Picnic, Huntington District Deputy District Engineer LTC Miller recognized six volunteers for exceptional service. The volunteers, John and Joetta Johnson, Eugene and Karen Bender, Pam Roberts and Tony Adkins have served at Sutton Lake for many years and exemplify the Sutton Lake Volunteer Program. Each received a plaque and certificate.

28 Feb 2014

Spring Cleaning at Sutton

It’s the same story we all face every spring – you have to clean up the mess winter leaves behind. The story is the same at the dams operated by the Corps of Engineers. Winter floods wash down quite a bit of drift and debris, which ends up directly behind the dam structure. Some of the drift is man-made trash, but mostly it’s made up of tree limbs and other vegetation.