Statewide effort focuses on aquatic invaders
Preliminary results from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Aquatic Invasive Species Program show that 17 stations across the state inspected 30,376 watercraft and 367 failed.
That included 26,224 in-state and 4,152 out-of-state watercraft as of Sept. 30. Most of FWP’s roadside inspection stations closed after Labor Day, but several stayed open a few weeks later.
The violations broke down to 234 watercraft with vegetation that wasn’t Eurasian milfoil, 79 with standing water, 37 with Eurasian milfoil, 13 with zebra or quagga mussels, 10 with marine organisms and six with illegal bait.
Seven of the watercraft with zebra or quagga mussels were reported at the Hardin station, and two were reported by FWP’s roving inspector in the Swan Valley.
There were some new AIS discoveries in 2013 — curly-leaf pondweed and New Zealand mudsnails were found in Quake Lake, and New Zealand mudsnails were found in Bluewater Creek downstream from the Bridger hatchery.
FWP wardens reported issuing two citations, 82 written warnings and 56 verbal warnings related to AIS matters from July 1 through Sept. 30.
Linnaea Schroeer, an aquatic invasive species specialist with FWP, said the agency will meet in January with partners to discuss the monitoring and inspection programs.
“The opinions from that meeting will likely result in some changes to those programs, particularly the locations and hours of operations of our watercraft inspection stations,” she said.
FWP will also host an AIS summit at the Great Northern Best Western in Helena on Feb. 5-6. Schroeer expects some information from that meeting could result in changes to the state’s evolving prevention program.
Overall, Schroeer expects the watchdog duties will remain the same for next year — FWP will take the lead in prevention, facilitation, outreach and education; the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will take the lead in control and eradication; FWP and DNRC will share duties in early detection and monitoring; and the departments of Agriculture and Transportation will continue to provide support to those efforts.
The Whitefish Lake Institute is one of several partners in the AIS program. Institute director Mike Koopal said they presented an AIS management plan to the city of Whitefish in spring 2013 and received $40,000 in funding.
The institute used $15,000 under contract with the Flathead Basin Commission to operate a watercraft inspection station on U.S. 2 in Coram, where 2,096 watercraft were inspected.
The rest of the money went to providing an AIS technical consultant to the Flathead Basin Commission, monitoring and control for Eurasian watermilfoil discovered at Beaver Lake, setting up an early AIS plant detection monitoring system, and supporting the Northwest Montana Lake Volunteer Monitoring Network.
Koopal reported that a dredge operation at Beaver Lake recovered seven pounds of milfoil this summer in that continuing clean-up effort. A 395-plant survey around Whitefish Lake turned up no AIS. Lake monitoring volunteers found flowering rush in the Hungry Horse Reservoir and Flathead Lake, curley leaf pondweed in Flathead Lake and fragrant waterlily in Echo Lake. Samples gathered from 25 local lakes for DNA analysis have so far not turned up any evidence of zebra or quagga mussels, Koopal reported.