We recently had a thaw here, the so-called "January thaw," which made it easy to see the mudflat left when the water levels are so drastically lowered on Cayuga Lake in the winter. It can't be good for the underside of the usually floating marsh to be high and dry like that, subject to the vagaries of wind, freezing, etc.
Here are normal water levels and "managed" water levels...
Normal levels above, managed below, same vantage point.