Looking back at 2018 and the battle against AIS

Let's take a look at what happened across Montana in 2018 in the battle against Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS). More than 100,000 watercraft were inspected at 35 watercraft inspection stations across the state. Clearwater Junction continues to be one of the busiest. Sixteen out-of-state watercraft with invasive mussels were intercepted.

AIS monitoring crews surveyed 1,450 sites on 250 unique waterbodies for invasive plants and animals. One new population of faucet snails was found in Lake Frances near Valier. (Lake Upsata also has faucet snails.) More than 2,000 water samples were collected to test for the invasive mussels. All were negative. Despite vigorous sampling and deployment of divers and mussel-sniffing dogs at Tiber and Canyon Ferry, no juvenile or adult mussels were detected. This is good news, so far, but we can't relax.

We are so fortunate to live in this beautiful place. What has become apparent is that the Clearwater Chain of Lakes is pretty unique within the state and there really aren't other small communities like ours with the many beautiful lakes like ours that are high-risk for AIS. Our lakes are worth extra efforts to keep them free of AIS, especially the zebra and quagga mussels.

Locally, Clearwater Resource Council staff and volunteers surveyed our six highest-risk lakes, at 37 sites, three times over the season. Swan Valley Connections monitored four lakes in their watershed, and Blackfoot Challenge monitored three. Of course, all samples were negative.

In 2018, CRC introduced a new prevention program, Boat Launch Monitors, which ran as a pilot program with part-time monitors at Salmon Lake and Placid Lake State Parks only. Boat Launch Monitors are trained to know what conditions require a watercraft to be inspected before launching, and what forms proof of inspection come in. They surveyed boats preparing to launch to determine if an inspection was required, and if so, obtained.

A major weakness of the watercraft inspection stations is the large number of drive-bys. Since a boat can't drive-by the boat launch, we positioned the Boat Launch Monitor to do one last final check that a boat is OK to launch before it actually enters the water. Overall the program was well accepted with only a few snarly folks. We have requested funding from the state to expand the program in 2019.

One of the key weapons in this battle against AIS is educating the public of the threats and what each person can do to help prevent the spread of AIS. CRC developed an AIS presentation designed for an outdoor venue, with no electricity and no projector. It's specifically designed for lakeside meetings like homeowner associations annual member meetings. If you would like to have CRC give this presentation to your group, please contact our Outreach Coordinator, Jenny Rohrer – jenny@crcmt.org.

At the other end of the spectrum, with electricity and today's technology, CRC also developed a set of six short videos to run as Public Service Announcements. DNRC will be airing them across the state in 2019. These videos target different segments of our population such as anglers, irrigators, hydro-power users, jet-skiers and other recreators – all who will be negatively affected if invasive mussels take hold in Montana. Check out the videos and feel free to share the link – just visit crcmt.org. The link to the videos and a description of each video are available on the CRC home page.

In 2009 I started spreading the word here in Seeley Lake about AIS, when I first became aware of zebra and quagga mussels and the threat they pose to our beautiful lakes. They were introduced in the Great Lakes in the late 1980's and rapidly spread to all waters downstream of the Great Lakes.

The mussels were first found out west in 2007 in Lake Mead. Eurasian Water Milfoil, an aquatic invasive plant, was first discovered in Montana in 2007. Over Christmas I watched the movie Grumpy Old Men for the umpteenth time. This time I noticed a sign on the side of the bait shop in one scene that said "Eurasian Water Milfoil Kills Lakes". The movie was released in 1983. I don't think the sign was a movie prop! Many places have been struggling with this problem much longer than we have.

Just as "it takes a village", it is going to take all of us being attentive to the little things we can do to help prevent the spread of AIS in our state and especially in our valley.