Legislators who earlier this year passed sweeping changes to Montana’s fight against aquatic invasive species grilled the state agencies charged with implementing them during a Thursday tour of new watercraft inspection and decontamination stations.
Lawmakers and public members who sit on the Environmental Quality Council -- an interim committee that oversees state agencies such as Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Department of Environmental Quality -- were in Helena on Thursday and Friday for regular meetings. Thursday morning committee members met with officials from FWP and DNRC at the Silos boat launch on Canyon Ferry Reservoir, where along with Tiber Reservoir, boaters undergo the most stringent AIS measures in the state.
“It’s incredible what’s been accomplished in the last six months here,” said Tom Woolf, who leads FWP’s AIS bureau.
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Last year the detection of larvae from either invasive quagga or zebra mussels in Tiber and a suspected detection in Canyon Ferry triggered a massive response from the state. With the detection the first in the Northwest and potential implications downstream in other states, FWP and DNRC stood up a more than $5 million per year AIS program, which included doubling inspection stations and water testing, mandatory inspection for watercraft coming from out of state, and mandatory decontamination of all watercraft at Tiber and Canyon Ferry.
Invasive mussels have quickly spread in the Great Lakes, Midwest and Colorado River. Once established, they clog infrastructure for hydropower, irrigation and municipal water causing millions of dollars in additional maintenance. They also negatively impact the environment by filtering plankton, which sends ripples up the food chain and causes increased aquatic plant growth due to increased sunlight penetration.
The 2017 Legislature was tasked with funding the new programs and enacted new angler and hydropower fees to foot the bill. On Thursday with boats launching nearby, they got to see where that funding was going.
“Within the fisheries division there’re hardly any employees not involved,” said fisheries administrator Eileen Ryce, identifying about 200 mostly seasonal staff involved.
Stacy Schmidt, animal specialist with the AIS bureau demonstrated some of her tools of the trade. A rake catches plants while various nets catch everything from snails to plankton and larvae. Sampling crews also take core samples with mussels the biggest priority.
Once in the lab, mussel larvae glow under cross polarized light when viewed through a microscope. But so do many other creatures, so suspected glowing samples then go on for more analysis.
“It’s a process of elimination,” Ryce said.
At inspection stations where adult mussels or other invasives are the target, crews take photos and send them to Schmidt or other supervisors for identification.
Of the 9,000 boats already inspected this year, five have been found with adult mussels. None of the 100 water samples have tested positive, however, mussels reproduce as water warms.
Enforcement is also a major component of the AIS program. With stopping for inspection mandatory, wardens have prioritized compliance, which can include stopping those who drive-by, said Warden Sgt. Justin Hawkaluk.
“We had a pretty significant presence when we first got rolling here,” he said of Canyon Ferry. “We take both a reactive and proactive approach, but it’s been mostly proactive as we want to be out here talking to people with outreach and education because it’s a new status on the lake.”
Compliance has been solid thus far, save for a few people who made their opposition to having to stop known.
The purchase of a $2 resident and $15 nonresident AIS stamp, part of the legislative funding bill, also ruffled a few feathers as it was required retroactively for those who already purchased a fishing license.
Legislators were there to ask questions and raised several concerns with the new program.
Former legislator and current EQC public member John Brenden asked how FWP was protecting eastern Montana, particularly the thousands of boats coming from out of state to Fort Peck.
Woolf said FWP is working to improve inspections in the area, “but it’s tough.”
“There’s a lot of space between boat ramp locations and people can get into the state a lot of different ways. We can’t have inspectors everywhere and it’s a very complicated issue we’re dealing with trying to determine risk and find the best way to address it.”
Lawmakers had similar questions about boats coming from Canada including those that entering through cross-border waters.
Rep. Willis Curdy, D-Missoula, asked about sea planes as a potential vector of transporting AIS and an apparent hole in the inspection program.
“That’s an issue across the West that’s a challenge to address because we have the authority to inspect them, but how do we do it?” Woolf said.
Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, who carried the main funding bill, had a number of questions and concerns. He asked that field staff be notified about the results of suspicious inspections and that signage be made permanent -- an apparently complicated task when it comes to complying with Montana Department of Transportation regulations, according to staff.
A major concern for Vincent was the frustration he hears particularly from outfitters in his part of the state that must continually stop at the check stations. Both Tiber and Canyon Ferry have so-called “local boater” decals in which boaters may expedite inspections if they only operate on either reservoir.
Vincent asked if the program could be expanded, giving boaters on other water bodies the local boater option and expediting inspections.
Woolf replied that this season was not an option, but expanding local boater is a plan for next year.
Along with FWP’s inspection stations, DNRC’s Stephanie Hester detailed the work of the state’s Invasive Species Advisory Council. Established in 2014, the council built a response framework that finished in time to inform the mussel rapid response team last year.
Action by the legislature put the council into statute, and it will continue to engage the many agencies and entities impacted by AIS, she said.
“Collaboration is a big charge of the new invasive species program at DNRC,” Hester said.