Bullock declares natural resource emergency

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock on Wednesday issued an executive order declaring a statewide natural resource emergency for Montana water bodies due to the detection of larvae of invasive aquatic mussels at Tiber Reservoir, and suspected detection at Canyon Ferry Reservoir and the Milk and Missouri rivers.

The executive order triggers the deployment of an interagency rapid response team to address the emerging situation.

“Aquatic invasive species are a serious threat to Montana’s critical infrastructure and economy. The deployment of the multi-agency rapid response team will work quickly to identify and contain existing mussel populations, and prevent future introduction to other water ways,” Bullock said in a press release. “The potential economic, ecological and recreational impacts for Montana and our region must be addressed quickly and every effort must be taken to prevent the additional spread of this threat.”

The rapid response team is being formed by three agencies: the Montana Invasive Species Advisory Council, Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. These agencies have been tasked with coordinating a team to immediately respond to the situation.

“We’ve been working statewide and regionally for decades to prevent the introduction of aquatic invasive mussels into Montana,” incident commander Matthew Wolcott said in a press release. “With these detections we’re quickly transitioning from prevention efforts to a control and containment strategy to protect Montana water bodies and others within region.”

Wolcott is leading the rapid response team.

Aquatic invasive mussel larvae was discovered last month in samples from the Tiber reservoir. Further testing confirmed the presence of the larvae. Ongoing sampling turned up water samples from Canyon Ferry Reservoir, the Milk River downstream of Nelson Reservoir, and the Missouri River upstream of Townsend that were suspect for the mussel larvae. Additional samples from these locations are still being analyzed. Those results are expected within the next couple weeks.