Originally published in Lake of the Woods Area News, Volume 54, Number 4, Fall 2024
Lake of the Woods faces many ecological stressors. We’re all familiar with harmful algae that often fouls the water later in the summer, sometimes causing toxic blooms, but there are plenty of other threats to our lakes and streams. Aquatic invasive species (AIS), surface and groundwater contaminants, ecological disruptions like habitat loss, and the cross-cutting impacts of climate change are all causes for concern. As summer winds to a close and we start prepping to pull our boats and ready them for storage, now is a great time to be mindful not to give hitchhiking AIS a ride. Let’s learn more.
Who works on AIS? In short, lots of people, including personnel with government agencies, non-governmental organizations and concerned citizens.
Many of these groups work together through a subcommittee of the International Multi-Agency Arrangement (IMA)’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The IMA is a consortium of many government resource agencies and groups, working on water management issues in the Rainy – Lake of the Woods watershed. The IMA includes government agency personnel, NGO members (like LOWDSA) and other experts from Minnesota, Manitoba, Ontario, Canada, the United States, and Indigenous nations who work with counties, communities, and local people to better understand and respond to challenges to our shared waters. The IMA-TAC includes field and technical personnel. In my International Watershed Coordinator role, I am the secretary to these groups.
The IMA-TAC AIS subcommittee meets each year in the late winter to review and assess existing or emerging invasive species threats and to develop communications campaigns and joint research or action projects. In May and June, you may have seen some of the information bulletins from this year, reproduced here, or on social media. Over the past few years, Brook Schryer from the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) has prepared these shareable infographics for the AIS subcommittee, a task that will be picked up by LOWDSA next year.
This year, the AIS subcommittee is chaired by Nicole Kovar, an AIS specialist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, an agency that maintains a robust AIS program. Visit the DNR’s AIS webpage (dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/ais/index.html) to learn all about AIS, including which Minnesota waterways are infested, how to identify and report AIS, and most importantly, tips and tricks for reducing the spread of AIS. Even if you’re not a Minnesotan, the site is very useful for understanding AIS, and the information does apply to Canadian waters that are shared with our US neighbours, such as Lake of the Woods, Rainy River, and Rainy Lake.
In 2023, the United States Geological Survey, another member of the IMA, published a risk assessment tool for AIS for the Rainy – Lake of the Woods watershed (doi.org/10.3133/ofr20221070). This report flowed from a project championed by the AIS subcommittee, working with the International Rainy – Lake of the Woods Watershed Board, to investigate the AIS of highest concern for our watershed.
The study identified dozens of concerning plant, animal, fish, invertebrate and other species, and ten rose to the surface as the most concerning, based on proximity to the watershed, the ease with which they might be transported or introduced, and the severity of the potential impacts they could have on the ecosystem. These are: Bythotrephes longimanus (spiny waterflea), Faxonius rusticus (rusty crayfish), Neogobius melanostomus (round goby), Dreissena polymorpha (zebra mussel), Bithynia tentaculata (mud Bithynia or faucet snail), Potamopyrgus antipodarum (New Zealand mud snail), Butomus umbellatus (flowering rush), Nitellopsis obtusa (starry stonewort), Myriophyllum spicatum (Eurasian watermilfoil), and Phragmites australis (common reed).
For many of these species, we do not have adequate control or eradication methods once they arrive, so the best chance we’ve got to combat them is to prevent them from ever getting here in the first place. And for that, it’s up to us to be mindful and responsible not to transport AIS as we move among water bodies.
When it comes to AIS, CLEAN, DRAIN, DRY is the mantra to remember.
CLEAN objects thoroughly before moving any watercraft, trailers, and any water-related equipment (depth finders, flotation devices, toys, etc.) between water bodies. Some AIS, like zebra mussels (which have been reported in Rainy Lake, Shoal Lake and Lake Winnipeg, but not yet in Lake of the Woods) and spiny water fleas (which are in Lake of the Woods but not all lakes in the watershed) are very tenacious hitchhikers and it takes high heat and pressure to remove them. AIS boat wash stations exist at several locations throughout Minnesota, and this year, Grand Council Treaty #3 and LOWDSA have partnered to operate these facilities at popular boat launches around Kenora. If you can’t visit a boat wash station, a car wash can work, too.
DRAIN bilge pumps, baitwells, livewells, and any other water storage compartments and leave the plugs out and hatches open while transporting watercraft.
DRY the object completely to kill any residual hangers-on, which for some AIS, means leaving a vessel to dry for as long as five days. Thoroughly inspect your vessel for unwanted visitors, including plants.
You can also reduce the spread of AIS—and avoid breaking the law—by remembering not to dump your bait into the lake, too. Dispose of unwanted minnows, leeches, worms, etc. in the trash.
