HELENA - Test results from 182 water bodies in Montana have turned up no new detections of invasive mussels, according to the Montana Mussel Response Team with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP).
Salmon Lake, Seeley Lake, Lake Alva, Lake Inez, Placid Lake and Big Sky Lake were among those local lakes tested. Clearwater Resource Council (CRC) is organizing a strategy planning meeting in early January to take a proactive approach to prevention for local waters.
“This is very good news. No mussel larvae, or veligers, were found in any of the remaining samples,” said Mussel Response incident commander Matthew Wolcott. “This gives us a much clearer picture of what we’re dealing with [at the state level], and where we will focus our efforts going forward.”
Tiber Reservoir remains the only water body 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, Wolcott said further testing is needed to determine whether mussels are present.
CRC’s Aquatics Program Director Joann Wallenburn said that from the FWP check station records this past summer, 108 boats had been in either the Tiber Reservoir or Canyon Ferry prior to coming to launch in area lakes.
“The risk [that area lakes were infected] is there because boats were leaving Tiber or Canyon Ferry. They would have gone through the [watercraft] check stations but, at the veliger stage, there is no way the inspectors are going to pick that up. The only thing they are looking for is not dry or not clean boats.”
Wallenburn also noted that there is no check station between Tiger, Canyon Ferry and Browns Lake.
“I’m concerned about Browns, Upsata and Coopers Lake,” said Wallenburn. “I would love to get a group of volunteers from Coopers [Lake] to do the sampling [every year. Wallenburn tests it every three years with the last test being this past summer].”
With funding from the U.S. Forest Service, CRC started a Citizen Scientist monitoring program in 2011 on the six major local lakes: Lake Alva, Lake Inez, Seeley Lake, Salmon Lake, Placid Lake and Big Sky Lake. Volunteers take samples four times per summer and collect plankton toe-net samples from various sites on the lake to test for veligers.
“There are spurts of veligers in the water but the timing we don’t know,” said Wallenburn. “We know that when they spurt, the veligers only live for two weeks. Well, we are sampling monthly. Are we likely to catch them or do we need to start sampling every two weeks?”
In 2014, CRC started receiving additional funding from Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC). With the additional funds, CRC sent water samples to the University of Montana’s Environmental Genetics Lab to test for the genetic material (eDNA) of the invasive mussels and Eurasian watermilfoil.
The last eDNA sample was taken in mid-September.
“If veligers had been introduced, they could continue to grow and throw off genetic material as late as November because the temperatures were warm enough to support the veligers becoming adults,” said Wallenburn. Wallenburn said CRC is going to either do another round of eDNA sampling through the ice this winter or right after ice-off this spring.
“If they are there, we would like to find out before the waters warm up enough for them to reproduce,” said Wallenburn. “Hopefully, they are just not there.”
The objective of the strategic planning meeting led by CRC is to bring together local stakeholders such as lakeshore owners, lakeshore businesses, fishing tournament sponsors, neighboring natural resource-focused non-government organizations and local, county, state and federal agencies to outline the threat, identify risk areas and develop strategies to prevent the introduction of these invasive mussels to local lakes.
“Second only to prevention is early detection,” said Wallenburn. “Not all introductions proceed to a full invasion. The earlier an introduction is detected, the better chance we have to avert colonization. We will need to increase monitoring efforts but to what extent?”
The first meeting will be to brainstorm ideas on the ideal response at the various lakes without time, money or volunteer constraints. Further discussions will work with those ideas and define an implementable strategy for this next summer.
Lakeshore owners who would like to participate in this discussion are asked to contact Wallenburn 406-210-8453 or joann@crcmt.org. Date, location and time will be announced soon.
“We are trying to get our pulse on the community and see how much they are willing to get involved and contribute,” said Wallenburn.
Anyone wanting more information regarding the state mussel response can visit http://musselresponse.mt.gov or crcmt.org for the most recent updates.
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