But new habitat is created, which is, in essence, quite similar to habitat in a natural lake.
Nobody ever says that about a lake.
If you propose draining a lake, environmentalists would say that would cause a shocking loss of valuable habitat. But if you propose making a reservoir, which is a lake, they say the reverse. If the water no longer flows through bypass and collection systems, the salmon can no longer be transported. And the barges carrying salmon could not longer make it down the river. When the first data showing high reservoir survival became available in 1993 and 1994, NMFS researchers warned the NMFS Regional Director, Will Stelle, Jr., that reservoir survival was already so high that drawdown did not seem to be a useful tool for generating more salmon.