Minnesota Counties Concerned About 50% cut in AIS Funding

https://www.dl-online.com/news/local/counties-alarmed-about-potential-50-state-cut-to-aquatic-invasive-species-prevention

The number is 20 million dropped to 10 million. How do you feel about the efforts to stop AIS? Are we or the State doing enough?

Until the MDNR does something to address wake boat ballast water there is no need to spend money on the issue. Same in Wisconsin. JMO

I feel the same as the war on drugs. It’s more a screaming point for politicions than something that can ever be stopped.

Gary, have you ever heard how much AIS is carried in by birds, turtles, and such??
How much of it in an affected lake is carried by streams to others??
Or is that never considered?? Genuinely curious.

I have a small isolated pond about a quarter acre in size on 40 acres of rolling land. It attracts a lot of ducks. Full of milfoil. A couple smaller ponds in the woods with no ducks have no MF.

You can’t stop AIS. They are pizzing money in to the wind just to slow it down…maybe. Such a freaking waste of tax payor dollars. I couldn’t believe it when I got stopped on a highway for an AIS check and they had a dog trained to sniff out zebra mussels. Are you fugging kidding! I was a little relieved it wasn’t sniffing for the fish whistle.

Most of the fear are rich lake shore owners. Lots of those people are nuts. Lots of it is false fear from ignorance. And FWIW, i have lived my whole life on lakes other than college years and a few years after.

Iowaboy1 wrote:

Gary, have you ever heard how much AIS is carried in by birds, turtles, and such??
How much of it in an affected lake is carried by streams to others??
Or is that never considered?? Genuinely curious.

Thank you excellent point. No I have not………seems to me a question not brought up in AIS circles these days most likely for good reasons (wink) I am on the Township Board and at last Thursday’s meeting a representative from one of lake associations within the township attended, she was concerned about funding already approved. The Board told her the funding that was already approved would stay. No comment about the future. Personally have a long history pertaining to AIS going back to the date to when it first appeared on Lake Mich. Will share that towards the end of this tread. I want to hear from each of you, to your thought’s. DTW has a real experience, a good example and statement. Can you sense where I am at.

The battle can only be slowed with education.

I’ve been to a couple different boat landings where they randomly have a mobile boat wash station set up. Two guys, a 3/4 ton truck, and a $30,000 hot pressure washer trailer.

They’ve asked if they can wash my boat after pulling it out of the lake. To which I’ve asked why???

Their response is always “to stop the spread of AIS of course…”

They always give a befuddled look when I ask them where they were the last 20 times I launched this year, including this morning at 5:30 when I put it in

Enforcement and free boat washes don’t accomplish a fricken thing. ZERO…ZIP… NADA

The current program is like having TSA security inspect passengers at only one random airport in the country everyday.

What about the other 99% of passengers??

Without security 100% of the time your only hope is educating people not to bring a bomb on a plane (because it’s a bad idea for everyone)

Everything else is a complete waste of time and money.

I’ve never encountered a problem with an AIS surveyor/inspector/worker. They just ask me a few questions and move along. Many of them help reach weeds hanging on the trailer that I can’t reach.

That being said, I think the answer is education too. Maybe the DNR feels as if there’s been enough of the AIS workers over the years to the point where the education has been reached, so they are dropping funding for it some.

I wouldn’t mind a hot pressure wash of my hull when I’m done at some lakes. Removes nasty scum and algae off the hull that I don’t have to later on anyways.

^^^^ Trust me, they don’t do that thorough of a job. It’s a quick half-assed rinse, no soap, no scrubbing.

The only benefit I’ve ever seen from an AIS inspector is a “free” coozie or hand towel.

If foregoing a couple knick knacks saves us $10,000,000 I’m okay with it.

I think Gary should be nominated for our Saturday night topics presenter. I mean Fridays are taken sooooo.

What they do is a joke waste of money.

FinnyDinDin wrote:

You can’t stop AIS. They are pizzing money in to the wind just to slow it down…maybe. Such a freaking waste of tax payor dollars. I couldn’t believe it when I got stopped on a highway for an AIS check and they had a dog trained to sniff out zebra mussels. Are you fugging kidding! I was a little relieved it wasn’t sniffing for the fish whistle.

Most of the fear are rich lake shore owners. Lots of those people are nuts. Lots of it is false fear from ignorance. And FWIW, i have lived my whole life on lakes other than college years and a few years after.

They’ve kept silver carp out of the upper Mississippi so far. So, it’s not totally impossible to stop the spread.

I was at an access in Wisconsin where they wanted you to spray your rig with bleach when you pulled out. Number one, why would you do that AFTER you launched? Number two, I had no enthusiasm for throwing bleach around that was going to head down the ramp and into the lake. I asked the guy if he really thought dumping bleach in the lake was a good idea?

I got stopped by the DNR at the 494 access on Pool 2. The guy was a DNR employee, and he was pretty belligerent. I asked him what we were looking for. Zebra mussels. OK, I was in the water for 4 or 5 hours and every study ever done says it takes days for Zeebs to show up on your boat. The DNR guy said “Well you could be carrying veligers, the larval form of Zebra Mussels”.OK, what do veligers look like? He said they were invisible to the naked eye. I asked him, just to be clear, if we were standing around in the hot sun looking for something invisible? He was not amused.

We have all seen Sheriff’s boats driving away from accesses with so many weeds they look like they were setup for duck hunting. The rules apparently don’t apply to everyone.

Finally, they built a big ice castle for the St. Paul winter carnival a few years ago. They cut big blocks of ice out of a local lake. They were leaving the lake with tons of lake water. If I don’t dump out my minnow bucket I’m in big trouble. I write the DNR and asked how this could be legal. The reply was that they had a permit. I asked if I could apply for one of these special magic permits that would let me ignore AIS laws. I never heard back.

The point is, most of the rules are ineffective, the enforcement is selective, and the money spent is mostly wasted.

SR

Matt I’m all for actual effective preventive measures like fish barriers, poisoning lampreys, etc.

But the whole boat inspector thing is the biggest waste of time and money imaginable.

Remember, it only takes ONE contaminated boat to introduce an invasive species.

It’s just not logistically possible to inspect EVERY single boat going into EVERY body of water in Minnesota EVERY DAY, ALL YEAR.

Let’s take a look at just one lake, let’s use Mille Lacs.

It has 13 boat landings. Inspections 7 days a week, 24 hours a day at each landing would require 39 full-time employees.

If they got paid $17 an hour it would cost $2,000,000 a year to inspect Mille Lacs.

How much would it cost for the other 14,999 lakes??

What about float planes?

What about private accesses?

What about dunking a canoe or kayak off the shoulder of the road?

But it makes some people feel all warm & fuzzy.

B-man wrote:

^^^^ Trust me, they don’t do that thorough of a job. It’s a quick half-assed rinse, no soap, no scrubbing.

The only benefit I’ve ever seen from an AIS inspector is a “free” coozie or hand towel.

If foregoing a couple knick knacks saves us $10,000,000 I’m okay with it.

Lol I’ll take your word for it. I’ll take a free towel too!

Dutchboy wrote:

But it makes some people feel all warm & fuzzy.

Seriously.

We’d be a thousand times better off mandating every fisherman and boat owner watch an annual 5-minute video with a 5 question quiz at the end.

It would be much more productive and effective than what’s currently being done.

B-man wrote:

Matt I’m all for actual effective preventive measures like fish barriers, poisoning lampreys, etc.

But the whole boat inspector thing is the biggest waste of time and money imaginable.

Remember, it only takes ONE contaminated boat to introduce an invasive species.

It’s just not logistically possible to inspect EVERY single boat going into EVERY body of water in Minnesota EVERY DAY, ALL YEAR.

Let’s take a look at just one lake, let’s use Mille Lacs.

It has 13 boat landings. Inspections 7 days a week, 24 hours a day at each landing would require 39 full-time employees.

If they got paid $17 an hour it would cost $2,000,000 a year to inspect Mille Lacs.

How much would it cost for the other 14,999 lakes??

I never argued the boat inspectors are a good deterrent but you can’t argue that stopping AIS is impossible.

It’s amazing how posts can just vanish into cyber space.

I’ll argue stopping ALL invasives IS impossible (meaning not feasible $$$$$$) with you all day long.

An electronic fish barrier across a 100′ lock and dam is completely different than the 800,000 registered boats in Minnesota going to every access in the state.

Out west they are AIS Nazi’s, but it’s a lot more feasible when there are far fewer lakes and a tenth of the boats, but they’re still losing the battle.

Total waste of taxpayers money, not going to stop zebes or milfoil. Jobs program for college kids and retirees up north. I can say that the inspectors have gotten better at customer interaction then when they started though..pretty sure it hadn’t stopped the progress of anything..nature adapts.

Dutchboy wrote:

I feel the same as the war on drugs. It’s more a screaming point for politicions than something that can ever be stopped.

Yep

B-man wrote:

I’ll argue stopping ALL invasives IS impossible (meaning not feasible $$$$$$) with you all day long.

An electronic fish barrier across a 100′ lock and dam is completely different than the 800,000 registered boats in Minnesota going to every access in the state.

Out west they are AIS Nazi’s, but it’s a lot more feasible when there are far fewer lakes and a tenth of the boats, but they’re still losing the battle.

Where did I say you can stop all AIS?

But, saying the DNR shouldn’t try and combat it or do inspections because “it’ll never stop the spread” is like saying we shouldn’t have officers checking for limits because you’ll never catch everyone.

Gary, thanks for your reply, I am curious about AIS as a lake I have frequented since ’84 has been gin clear down to 14 feet until the last five or so years, it has no inlet waters feeding it.
I would wager that its due to lawn fertilizers that are over used and used on non native grasses so lake side owners can have golf greens for lawns.
Now the lake with very little wind can become very dirty with algae, that may be good for some species as it is part of a food chain, however, it takes away sunlight that promotes plant growth at deeper depths that supply beneficial oxygen for all living things in the lake.

So, do we pray that zeebs come in, ( they are already there now ) and clean the lake up so its gin clear again?
Everyone thought the sky was falling when the zeebs invaded Michigan and now its a walleye factory, plant growth at depths is at record levels and oxygen levels are high and winter survival rates are better as I understand it.

I guess my question is, if we let nature take its course, ( zeebs die off and dont reproduce as much as food levels for them are low ) will things balance out as they always seem to do if left alone??
If I am wrong please correct me.

Matt Moen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FinnyDinDin wrote:</div>
You can’t stop AIS. They are pizzing money in to the wind just to slow it down…maybe. Such a freaking waste of tax payor dollars. I couldn’t believe it when I got stopped on a highway for an AIS check and they had a dog trained to sniff out zebra mussels. Are you fugging kidding! I was a little relieved it wasn’t sniffing for the fish whistle.

Most of the fear are rich lake shore owners. Lots of those people are nuts. Lots of it is false fear from ignorance. And FWIW, i have lived my whole life on lakes other than college years and a few years after.

They’ve kept silver carp out of the upper Mississippi so far. So, it’s not totally impossible to stop the spread.

They were thick as could be last Spring at Lock and Dam #5.

Local commercial fisherman on Pool 4 are running into them with increased frequency as well.

They have been identified all the way up the Chippewa River as far as Eau Claire WI too.

It’s only a matter of time until they are visible through Pool 2, 3, 4, the St Croix and maybe the Minnesota too

Dutchboy wrote:

But it makes some people feel all warm & fuzzy.

Makes me warm but I’m not fuzzy.

Iowaboy1 wrote:

Gary, thanks for your reply, I am curious about AIS as a lake I have frequented since ’84 has been gin clear down to 14 feet until the last five or so years, it has no inlet waters feeding it.
I would wager that its due to lawn fertilizers that are over used and used on non native grasses so lake side owners can have golf greens for lawns.
Now the lake with very little wind can become very dirty with algae, that may be good for some species as it is part of a food chain, however, it takes away sunlight that promotes plant growth at deeper depths that supply beneficial oxygen for all living things in the lake.

So, do we pray that zeebs come in, ( they are already there now ) and clean the lake up so its gin clear again?
Everyone thought the sky was falling when the zeebs invaded Michigan and now its a walleye factory, plant growth at depths is at record levels and oxygen levels are high and winter survival rates are better as I understand it.

I guess my question is, if we let nature take its course, ( zeebs die off and dont reproduce as much as food levels for them are low ) will things balance out as they always seem to do if left alone??
If I am wrong please correct me.

[
There is research that shows zebra mussel populations peak and level off. Some maintain that zebra mussels takes away food for other fish. Reduced food sources the fish adjust accordingly, with a drop in numbers. For certain the habit changes with clearer water, weed lines become deeper, fishing tactics change. We have seen fish populations drop once almost thought to be so low no possibility for recovery. Now we are seeing those populations rebounding. The best word that describes the outcomes of AIS is “change”. Lake property owners once were concerned their property values would drop as the result of AIS. That has not been the case. Personally take precautions necessary so I am not spreading the stuff best I can. Education is the best answer. I feel it is important to look at where we are spending the funds, the results obtained and adjust accordingly. Hope this helps and thank you for yours and others clomments

I wonder what Elon would do ?

Established facts its here , even if contained . Is anyone addressing the source ? Ships dumping ballast water coming through the Great Lakes ? Who is inspecting them ?