Group Pressing Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to Adopt More Robust Aquatic Invasive Species Plan

(KNSI) — Following the recent discovery of zebra mussels in two more Minnesota lakes, the Department of Natural Resources is being pressed to adopt a more robust management plan.

The DNR says Horseshoe Lake in Crow Wing County and Rainy Lake, which is also connected to several other bodies of water, recently identified zebra mussel infestations.

The Minnesota DNR’s blueprint for combating aquatic invasive species like zebra mussels was written in 2009. Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates Executive Director Jeff Forester says he hopes it’s a comprehensive strategy with better coordination of on the ground efforts, saying, “Nobody really knows what anybody else is doing, and it’s not targeted toward specific and achievable goals. It’s not coordinated.”

He says the DNR should be guiding collaboration between lake associations, county government, and others doing prevention work. The DNR says it anticipates putting out a new management plan every five years, but the agency’s deputy director of ecological and water resources, Ann Pierce, says that kind of timeline would require more reviews by the federal government. She says that could delay prevention funding from congress by up to a year and says that would put up a “roadblock in some of that annual granting process.”

Forester says those issues should not be connected and says the federal grants are a narrow scope in combatting aquatic invasive species and the state needs to focus on its own plan.

Over in Wisconsin, meanwhile, its DNR last updated the AIS management plan in 2019. Lakes and rivers section chief for the Wisconsin DNR, Carroll Schaal, admitted it was a big undertaking. He added that federal involvement was only part of the approach, saying the “federal money at stake isn’t that significant,” adding that the DNR was “very appreciative of it” but the agency was able to “adjust to the current conditions with its own resources.”

Back in Minnesota, the DNR says its planning doesn’t prevent making changes if a crisis prompts one but insists required updates aren’t optimal in carrying out a broader plan.

The DNR says about 8% of Minnesota’s more than 11,000 lakes are on the infested waters list. Less than 3% of Minnesota lakes are listed as infested with zebra mussels. As of October 2019, we have confirmed zebra mussels in 214 lakes and wetlands. We have listed 194 bodies of water as infested with zebra mussels because they are closely connected to a waterway where zebra mussels have been found.
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MNC Reporter Mike Moen contributed to this story.

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