Lake invaders pose difficult management problems

Positive hit could close down boating in Glacier Park

Montana's statewide aquatic invasive species (AIS) program was scrutinized during the Flathead Basin Commission's Sept. 14 meeting in Glacier National Park, with representatives from the two agencies in charge of the program explaining their successes and shortfalls.

Aquatic invasive species pose a serious threat to Flathead Lake and other Montana waters, especially quagga and zebra mussels, which have been known to rapidly take over whole ecosystems and completely coat boat hulls and engines, docks and intake pipes, even entire beaches. As a filter feeder, millions of the tiny mollusks can drain all the nutrients from a lake, killing off fish and other organisms.

The quasi-official commission got started with education and outreach efforts about AIS in 2007, but recognizing the need for government action, it began working with local state legislators in 2008.

This effort paid off when Sen. Verdell Jackson, R-Kalispell, and Rep. Janna Taylor, R-Dayton, ushered through the Aquatic Invasive Species Act in 2009.

While the act gave authority to the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Department of Agriculture to set up check stations to ensure boats were not harboring invasive species as they traveled around the state, the commission decided local efforts also should be taken to provide an additional level of protection.

An AIS work group was formed, and various public agencies and stakeholder groups were brought together to draft a basin-wide AIS plan. The plan was finalized in July 2010 and submitted to the state for incorporation into the statewide plan.

Eileen Ryce, the state's aquatic nuisance program coordinator, told the commission that consultants were hired and the statewide plan is being revised. She expected it to be completed by next year.

Staffing problems

Short-staffing and a late start created problems this year, said Linnae Schroeer, an AIS specialist for FWP.

"We got behind and couldn't keep up as planned," she said. "Overall, I believe the boat inspections went well. The inspectors reported many people were unfamiliar with the AIS program but were supportive and wanted to learn more."

Finding enough seasonal workers and workers for isolated border stations was difficult, Schroeer said. Inspectors also needed more training, particularly for enforcement issues.

"It's not a perfect system yet, but we believe we're on the right track," Schroeer said.

"Managing people is the biggest part of the job now," Ryce said.

Ryce said inspectors were told to issue warnings unless people won't cooperate, in which case they could be cited. Montana Highway Patrol and sheriff's deputies have shown support in backing up citations, she said. But with 35 to 40 vehicles carrying kayaks or canoes driving past the Ronan station without stopping in just one day, contacting the Highway Patrol each time "was too much of a burden," she said.

Monitoring efforts were delayed this year by the high spring runoff in Montana rivers, but that work should be completed this fall, Ryce said. A rapid response exercise in collaboration with other Pacific Northwest states will be held in Libby next month, she said.

FWP hoped to do better next year, with inspection stations operating "from May to ice-up," Ryce said, but the program is limited by staffing. There are 47,000 resident-registered boats in Montana, she pointed out - and that doesn't include nonresident and nonmotorizedboats.

"We'll never stop every boat, so we need education," she said.

Check stations

FWP inspectors at 39 stations checked 5,887 boats this year, none of which were repeats. Eight of the stations were in the Flathead Lake basin, but some stations were short-term and intended to be educational. FWP hopes to establish a check station on U.S. 2 near West Glacier next year.

The Ronan station was FWP's busiest, with 1,855 boats checked. It also was one of two stations that reported AIS hits - one boat with Eurasian watermilfoil, two needing draining and one with illegal live minnows from Minnesota intended for use as bait. Inspectors at Whitefish Lake checked 115 boats and found one with vegetation.

On March 5, FWP inspectors found a quagga mussel attached to a sailboat at the Dayton harbor on Flathead Lake as it was about to set sail. Officials said the boat had come from Lake Mead, in Nevada, which is heavily contaminated by mussels, and the sailboat had been improperly decontaminated.

On the east side, FWP inspectors on the Fort Peck Reservoir found juvenile zebra mussels on vegetation attached to a boat trailer on Aug. 27. The boat's owner was from Billings, but the boat and trailer had been purchased in Michigan. The owner had taken the boat out on a test run on a Michigan lake containing zebra mussels.

The Ag Department, which maintained different numbers in their statewide "light temporary quarantine," inspected 5,335 boats at 13 stations, including Clearwater Junction, Eureka, on the Clark Fork River near Idaho, and in Plains. They recorded 2,108 repeat visits and 1,603 vehicles that didn't stop.

Ag Department inspectors found Eurasian watermilfoil three times, each at a different station. They also reported finding at the Plains station one case of flowering rush and two cases of possible quagga and zebra mussels.

The future

The Flathead Basin Commission had its concerns, according to chairman and Glacier National Park superintendent Chas Cartwright. The commission wanted more border stations, more stations in the Flathead Lake basin, stations open for at least 12 hours per day, and more input from regional groups.

Jackson presented nine suggestions from state legislators. Recognizing the size of the task and the state's tight budget, the legislators wanted to see more cooperation with other state and local agencies, including transportation, law enforcement, national parks, tribes, conservation districts, adjacent states and stakeholder groups. They also wanted more focus on vehicles with license plates from "infected states."

"Funding is a problem," Jackson said. "It's a ‘cat and dog bill' and it has to compete with everything else."

The state might need to turn to a fee system for all boaters, in or out of state, to fund the AIS program in a consistent way, he said.

When asked what would happen if a lake scored a positive hit from a mussel, Cartwright said "all bets are off" and it's likely Glacier Park would completely shut down its waters to boats.

"I think eradication is a fantasy," he said. "But control is possible."