MNWCD AIS Inspection Update
Matt Downing, AIS Program Coordinator for Washington Conservation District (www.mnwcd.org), another esteemed Square Lake Association friend, champion, and world class project manager, recently described the various elements of WCD’s AIS Detection Program for Square Lake, for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the range of their inspection services, as follows:
“Weekly wading checks are conducted at all “inland” access points in the county. What this entails is a paid staff person visually inspecting the area around the boat ramp and dock from shore to knee deep. The primary target of these efforts are zebra mussels, but other species are also searched for. 10-15 minutes of searching occurs each week and results are uploaded to EDD Maps. This will continue into the fall.
A whole lake meander survey is also conducted in July. Visual searching was conducted by boat around the perimeter of the lake from 0-15 ft, with 15 sampling sites conducted. Additionally, 2 person-hours of snorkel searching were conducted from the outlet structure to the edge of the swimming beach.
Through September 5, we conducted 488 hours of inspections, resulting in roughly 700 inspections occurring. One incoming water/plant violation and twelve incoming plug violations were prevented.
You’ll notice that the number of inspections is down from 2020. We also worked very closely with county parks to implement more restrictive parking controls to limit how much boat traffic the lake receives, as well as improved signage. We are also going to install a bait collection station this fall to encourage proper disposal.
Finally, we are working with St Croix River Association (SCRA) to conduct some targeted brochures and education materials that may have begun distributing already.
Unfortunately the type of AIS plant is not recorded, it is against statute to transport any aquatic plant over the road in the State of Minnesota, so that is all the detail we collect. Even if it is a native species, plants can be a vector for aquatic animals like Zebra Mussels and faucet snails.
It is also against state statute to transport a watercraft over the road with a drain plug installed. A violation means that they arrived at the landing with the plug in place. They would have been required to leave the landing area to remove it and drain any water away from the lake prior to being allowed to launch.”
We thank Matt for this good-news update, and commend his talented inspector team for preventing AIS intrusion into Square Lake once again this summer. All it takes is for one careless boat owner to launch a boat that contains AIS, and these heroic inspectors prevented at least 13 possible intrusions from ruining our beloved Lake. Three cheers for Team Matt!