[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 11/6/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

November 6, 2008

 

1.  Top Items -

 

Tahoe inspections target invasive mussels

San Francisco Chronicle

 

Mud snail crops up in four more North Coast watersheds

Eureka Times Standard

 

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Tahoe inspections target invasive mussels

San Francisco Chronicle – 11/6/08

Tom Stienstra, Chronicle Outdoors Writer

 

 (11-05) 19:17 PST -- The regionwide effort to stop the spread of invasive foreign quagga mussels has extended to Lake Tahoe, with a new inspection program ordered this week by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

 

The agency has also established info centers at (888) 824-6267 and protecttahoe.org for any changes in the program due to storms, said agency spokesman Dennis Oliver.

 

"These mollusks have the potential to unleash serious environmental and economic harm," Oliver said. "They are carried between water bodies via watercraft that are not adequately cleaned, drained and dried."

 

Two of Tahoe's public ramps, Cave Rock and Lake Forest, will be staffed with inspectors from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. this winter. Inspectors will occasionally be stationed at Obexer's Marina near Homewood, Tahoe Keys Marina in South Lake Tahoe, Sierra Boat Company and Ski Beach in Incline Village. Check with the individual facilities for hours.

 

Ramps with no inspectors will be gated and locked, Oliver said. Quagga mussels have the ability to reproduce at high rates, take over the aquatic biology of a lake, and clog water pipes, pumps and anything else they adhere to. Water departments across California have been on high alert since the mollusk was first discovered in Nevada's Lake Mead early this year, the first time this invasive species was verified west of the Continental Divide.

 

Earlier this year, zebra mussels were also found at San Justo Reservoir in San Benito County near Hollister, only 50 miles south of the Bay Area. The finding set off alerts and new boating rules, including mandatory inspections at all lakes in the East Bay Regional Park District and East Bay Municipal Water District. None of the mussels has been found at any Bay Area lake.

 

The most common reason that boats fail the inspection is water left in old 2-cycle outboard motors from previous trips, said Shelly Lewis of the East Bay Regional Park District. Most modern 4-cycle outboards drain automatically when removed from a lake.

 

To stop the spread of invasive mussels, Fish and Game recommends waiting five days and keeping your boat dry between launches into different lakes. Other recommendations are available at dfg.ca.gov; Fish and Game's invasive mussel hot line is (866) 440-9530.#

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/05/SP1213U53C.DTL

 

Mud snail crops up in four more North Coast watersheds

Eureka Times Standard – 11/06/08

John Driscoll, staff writer

 

A prolific invasive snail has now been found in four coastal watersheds, raising the possibility that it will infest a larger part of Humboldt County in the near future.

The New Zealand mud snail, first found locally in Big Lagoon in September, has since been confirmed as present in Lake Earl, Tillas Slough off the Smith River, in the lower Klamath River and in the Russian River east of Hopland.

 

Other watersheds infested with the invasive snail have been devastated by their presence. It was first found in the Snake River in Idaho in the 1980s, and now is present in 10 states. Without natural predators, the snails consume algae and plant and animal debris, altering the food chain -- affecting protected salmon, steelhead and other species.

 

While the state is launching an educational campaign to let boaters and fishermen know how to prevent the spread of the tiny snail, it's clear it will not be easy, if even possible. To date, there is no way to eradicate the snail, either.

 

”There's not a whole lot you can do once they get in there,” said Fish and Game district watershed biologist Michelle Gilroy.

 

The snails can spread on the feet of wading birds, and can survive in the digestive tracts of fish. To kill them on fishing waders and gear, the California Department of Fish and Game recommends freezing the stuff for eight hours; to scour them from boats, the agency recommends scrubbing them off with hot water.

 

The hope is to at least slow the spread of the New Zealand mud snail. Breck McAlexander, a Fish and Game aquatic species coordinator said that the snails, which thrive in fresh water, could have limitations in brackish waters like lagoons and estuaries. If their introduction into a watershed is reduced, it's conceivable that they might not take hold enough to produce a viable population, he said.

 

But even that is hopeful thinking.

 

”The best strategy is to try to prevent their spread,” McAlexander said, “which may or may not be possible.”

 

On the American River, biologists have carefully monitored for the presence of mud snails that can be transported by hatchery fish into their destination lakes and streams. Fish and Game policy is to not allow fish from infested hatcheries to be transported to bodies of water not yet infested.

 

Now, with the presence of mud snails not far from the Mad River Hatchery, McAlexander said it is important to monitor that hatchery, too.

 

So far, there have been no mud snails discovered there, and the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District is working to develop ways to prevent the spread of the snails into the upper watershed, in Ruth Lake.

 

Pikeminnow scare is quelled

 

In the effort to keep invasive species in check, there is some good news.

 

The dreaded pikeminnow -- which has voraciously consumed salmon on the Eel River for years -- was believed to have worked its way into the Elk River, which empties into Humboldt Bay.

 

Biologists found a single pikeminnow in Martin Slough, a tributary to Elk River, in August, and feared the worst. Along with other state and federal agencies, the California Department of Fish and Game developed a sampling strategy to detect whether any other pikeminnow were in the watershed.

 

”The implications for restoration around Humboldt Bay with the introduction of these invasive species is pretty frightening,” said Fish and Game district watershed biologist Michelle Gilroy.

 

But after a number of attempts to find other pikeminnow, the stream turned up clean. No pikeminnow. While the sampling will continue at least until spring of 2009, biologists are reasonably certain that the fish's presence was an isolated case.

 

The question is how did it get there? Gilroy said that it seems most likely the fish was planted in a nearby pond or in the slough itself. That's illegal; Fish and Game requires a permit to stock fish in private ponds and in no circumstance allows fish to be transported to other streams without permission, Gilroy said.

 

Gilroy said it's also possible the fish got there from the Eel River, although pikeminnow aren't salt-water tolerant, and would have had to travel miles to get into Elk River.

 

Restorationist Mitch Farro with the Pacific Coast Fish, Wildlife and Wetlands Restoration Association said that when the Eel River is running strong, a current can push a stream of fresh water north from the mouth of the river to Humboldt Bay. That could have allowed a pikeminnow to travel into the bay and back into fresh water.

 

”It's a possibility,” Farro said. “It's also fairly likely that someone put them there.”#

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_10913780

 

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