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Even before the
Lewis & Clark Bicentennial, boat traffic into the Northwest from points
east of the 100th meridian was noteworthy. On just one Web site of
boats that needed to be shipped around the country between May 21 and June
21, 2001, we found 21 boats destined for Washington, Oregon, and British
Columbia. Five of those boats were coming from Michigan, where zebra mussels
infest many water bodies.
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Obviously,
reservoirs, lakes, rivers, and other water bodies in the West, including
those along the Missouri River basin, attract many boaters. This pathway is
of particular concern, because many states have no inspection programs in
place to determine if travelers are transporting zebra mussels. Only astute
observation by an inspector from Washington intercepted a boat from the Great
Lakes that entered the state with live zebra mussels aboard several years
ago.
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Obviously states
such as South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska, which are within a day’s
drive of zebra-mussel infested waters, are at much greater risk.
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