REGIONAL— A total of $661,962 in state funds will contribute to the fight against aquatic invasive species, or AIS, in St. Louis County, based on action by the county board this week. The county board approved a total of seven projects, with $398,600 earmarked for the North St. Louis Soil and Water Conservation District to manage watercraft inspections, decontaminations, and public education on the following lakes:
Bear Island, Birch, Burntside, Crane, Ely, Gilbert-Pit, Johnson, Kabetogama, One Pine, Pelican, Shagawa, and Vermilion.
Separately, the Vermilion Lake Association will receive $62,537 for continued watercraft inspections and cleaning, public awareness, habitat evaluation, threat assessment, early detection and response.
“The AIS challenge at Vermilion is very large,” said Terry Grosshauser, president of the 2,600-member lake association. “About 16,000 boats launch at Vermilion’s 40 public and private accesses each year. With serious vegetation threats like hybrid watermilfoil and starry stonewort expanding rapidly in Minnesota lakes, we must do all we can to protect Lake Vermilion and its business community.”
“We need to be extra vigilant with veligers (zebra mussel larvae) discovered last fall in Lake of the Woods,” continued Grosshauser. Lake of the Woods and Lake Vermilion are both low-calcium lakes believed to be inhospitable to adult zebra mussels.
Countering this growing threat takes an army of volunteers and significant funding. “Our AIS volunteers will donate over 2,000 hours in 2020,” said Jeff Lovgren, Lake Vermilion AIS program coordinator. “We cannot do this without their generous time commitment.”
Other projects approved by the county board include:
• $25,100 to Burntside Lake Association to continue training of boat inspectors, promote the use of boat cleaning stations, improve public awareness and education about AIS, build early detection capabilities, and partnership development.
• $98,000 to Wildlife Forever for marketing efforts for their Clean Drain Dry Initiative campaign aimed at public awareness and education, and behavioral change.
• $32,625 to the city of Babbitt for the installation, maintenance, and partnership for a clean, drain, dry, dispose station at the Birch Lake public access.
Each year, through the AIS Prevention Aid Program, the Minnesota Legislature allocates funding to counties to be used to prevent the introduction or limit the spread of AIS. Through an application and proposal process, St. Louis County has sought out and supported projects that address one or more of the seven categories and associated actions outlined in the St. Louis County AIS Prevention Plan. The amount of funding received from the state is based on a formula that factors each county’s share of watercraft trailer launches and watercraft trailer parking spaces. Of Minnesota’s 87 counties, St. Louis County has the second highest number of watercraft trailer launches, at 169, and the highest number of watercraft trailer parking spaces, at 1,429.