Discussions Begins for Local Zebra Mussel Response

SEELEY LAKE – Agency representatives, non-government organizations and concerned citizens met Jan. 4 to discuss a strategy for local lakes in response to the discovery of invasive mussel veligers (larvae) in Montana's Tiber Reservoir.

Everyone at the meeting agreed that all boats should be inspected prior to launching in local waters and ballasted boats should be decontaminated before launching. Ideas of how to implement and enforce this were also discussed. It is Clearwater Resource Council (CRC) Aquatics Program Director Joann Wallenburn's hope to develop a customized, community response before ice-off for the various lakes that is acceptable to recreationists, affordable and one where everyone contributes.

Wallenburn invited private consultant and expert in zebra mussels Erik Hanson and Randy Arnold, Region 2 supervisor for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) and an incident commander for the state's Mussel Incident Response Team, to help explain the mussels' negative impacts, what has been done in other infested states and what actions and responses are being proposed by the Mussel Incident Response Team.

Mussels were introduced into the Great Lakes in 1988. By 1994, mussels were found throughout the whole Mississippi River system. Mussels were found in Nevada's Lake Mead in 2007. The Columbia River Basin is the last major watershed in the United States without mussels.

Tiber Reservoir remains the only water body in Montana in which multiple sample results showed mussel larvae. Although there were suspect samples for Canyon Ferry Reservoir and the Milk River below Nelson Reservoir and an inconclusive sample on the Missouri below Toston dam, further testing is needed to determine whether mussels are present.

Anything that moves water can move veligers. There is a lower risk with the veligers because they are more fragile than adult mussels. While only a few adult mussels attached to a boat can start a viable population in a new body of water, it takes a lot of veligers to pose a risk.

Hanson said the risk to Montana is recreational boaters. The adults attach to the boat and veligers are moved in water. Wakeboard boats are a threat because the water in the ballast tanks can transport veligers.

"Draining boats can have a huge impact to make sure you aren't moving veligers," said Hanson. "The most protective thing is to make sure these boats are decontaminated [either a 120 degree water flush or bleach solution]."

Hanson said negative effects from the mussels include:

• Economic impacts in areas with mussels include $1 billion per year.

• Tourism dollars drop because people don't want to recreate on waters that are mussel-fowled.

• The shells are so sharp that visitors (including their pets) can no longer walk on the beaches.

• The waters smell from the decaying mussels.

• Fisheries decline due to mussels interrupting the food chain.

• Water quality declines due to taste and odor from the decaying mussels.

Hanson said 10 locations were sampled on Flathead Lake once per summer. He recommends 200 samples monthly to adequately sample Flathead.

"If you are not sampling enough, you can easily miss a population. Or if you go out and sample and you pick up one location it doesn't mean that the rest of the lake isn't infected," said Hanson. "We advocate for sampling monthly and sampling a high volume of water. We need to really step up our effort if we want to have protection."

Because veligers are easily transported downstream, they can start populations downstream.

"There really is nothing that will stop them from doing that," Hanson said. "There has never been an incident in the United States that I know of where downstream basins did not get infected."

Hanson was asked why, if there is nothing that can be done once a lake is infected, is early detection important.

"It isn't in terms of treating the lake. However it is important for preventing overland spread. We want to know if it is positive," said Hanson. "The other aspect is being prepared [once a lake tests positive]."

Hanson said that Glacier National Park closed their waters to boating once they learned that there was a positive detection in the state.

"They will probably not reopen those waters to boating because they are taking a very proactive approach to that," said Hanson. "Because they had a plan in place [that everyone agreed to], they were able to do that with very little kick back."

Hanson encouraged having a local group to advocate for local efforts. Other ideas Hanson offered to help protect local waters included:

• Close boat ramps – this is the most protective thing that can be done but it is not easily done.

• Limited hours of operation on the lake and at the launches.

• Mandatory inspections.

• No overnight beaching of boats to ensure adult mussels do not have the time to attach to the boats.

• Boat banding – Following an inspection, inspectors place a band that connects the boat to the trailer. Once broken inspectors know the boat has been launched.

• Self-inspection training and requirements.

• Fees for boaters to launch that pay for mandatory inspections.

Hanson was asked if there were any requirements for boats leaving contaminated lakes to be cleaned.

"That is something we typically don't do," said Hanson. "Once you have [mussels] in your water body there is very little value to make sure anything coming out of there is not dirty anymore. It is a lot cheaper for us to put inspection stations at our borders than to make sure every infested water body cleans their boat before they leave."

As soon as Tiber Reservoir showed positive for mussel veligers, FWP partnered with Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC)'s to establish an incident command system (ICS) for the state's response. The funding for the ICS was provided when Governor Steve Bullock declared a state of emergency.

"[The ICS team] is operating under the auspice that there are adult mussels in Tiber somewhere," said Arnold. "But we were limited very quickly in our control and response measures [because of the impending winter]. Canyon Ferry is considered suspect because the protocol is to determine that they are confirmed which requires multiple suspects. However, we are operating that we probably have adults in Canyon Ferry as well."

Dec. 1 the team closed down Tiber and Canyon Ferry to all boating.

"It wasn't so much that we were concerned that someone was going to launch a vessel, come up with a veliger and leave with a veliger. The concern was we didn't want anyone leaving the bodies of water that might have had a vessel on there, that had something moored for the summer, had equipment that was moored for the summer without talking to us," said Arnold.

The team lifted the restrictions Jan. 10. Winter is a low-risk season for transmitting mussels from one waterbody to another since invasive mussels don't reproduce when water temperatures drop below 48 degrees and the movement of boats, docks and other structures is minimal in the winter.

Arnold said that the negative samples from the 182 water bodies in Montana from this fall does not mean the waters are free of mussels, it means the samples were negative when they were taken.

The ICS team pulled in experts from all over the country to find the best available knowledge for current mussel response and prevention. They split into task forces to address the control and containment on Tiber and Canyon Ferry and sampling and monitoring following ice-off on uninfected waters.

"We are bringing forward recommendations [with the Governor's support] to the legislature for a more robust AIS [Aquatic Invasive Species] program for the state of Montana. There are going to be more check stations. There are going to be more decontamination stations and there are going to be restrictions in places. Boating and recreation in Montana is going look a lot different this summer."

Arnold said he's heard the legislature is going to be supportive of the proposal; the AIS program is going to come out well funded allowing the state to implement a robust response.

"The challenge right now is who is going to pay for it," said Hanson.

Those in attendance shared their opinions about various topics on consensograms. Of the 18 that placed a dot:

• 16 said it was Not OK to allow uninspected boats to launch and two said it was Mostly Not OK.

• All agreed that it was OK to require boats be inspected before launching with one saying it was Mostly OK.

• All participants agreed that it was OK to require ballasted boats to be decontaminated prior to launch.

• 15 thought it was OK to charge a boat sticker fee to help pay for inspection costs, two thought it was Mostly OK and one was 50/50.

• All 18 participants agreed that check stations should be open from ice-off to ice-on. Half thought they should be operated from sunrise to sunset and the other half thought inspectors should be available 24 hours, seven days a week.

• A majority of the participants were 50/50 on whether it was OK for float planes to use Seeley Lake. A couple thought it was Not OK or Mostly Not OK.

"While I think we can set the rule that everyone has to be inspected before they launch, how we implement and enforce that [will be different at each lake]," said Wallenburn.

Wallenburn said that those working on the regional plan agree that watercraft need to be inspected before launching and more check stations are needed. Mussel Response incident commander Matthew Wolcott recommended check stations at every crossing of the continental divide since there are no known infected waters west of the divide. The question remains is how many inspections would be required when travelling between lakes within the ring of check stations.

"Everything for me is balancing the risk. What we can do, how far we can go to mitigate the risk, what it costs and the buy in of the people to have it done to them," said Wallenburn. "The parameters have changed. If we do nothing more than what we have been doing, yet the risk is greater, then our position is weaker. We need to do more to stay at that same safety level."

When Wallenburn asked where does the group go next, there was no response. She said that CRC will be there to support the process however it can.

"The landscape for using our lakes is probably going to be quite different this summer. We just don't know what that is going to look like quite yet," said Wallenburn.