A joint task force of government agencies in Minnesota and Wisconsin will hold the final two, of nine, public meetings on a proposed plan to keep the zebra mussel out of the St. Croix River. As a part of the proposed plan, the Kinnickinnic Narrows (located six miles upstream from Prescott, Wisc.) is being established as the voluntary turn-around point for all vessels in the St. Croix who are participating in this conservation program. The plan is scheduled for implementation in April 1993. The meetings will be held on March 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Red Wing Public Library (Red Wing, Minn.) and on March 6 at 9:30 a.m. at the American Legion Hall (Hastings, Minn.). All interested persons are invited to participate.
Task force members are from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Minnesota/Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission, the Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources, the Sea Grant Institute, and the Northern States Power Company.
Zebra mussels are an exotic species which were introduced to the Great Lakes region in the mid-1980s. They have spread rapidly to the Illinois, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Though zebra mussels were found in the Mississippi River as far north as Minneapolis in 1992, last years survey of the St. Croix River found no presence of the zebra mussel.
The zebra mussel response plan consists of four major elements in a voluntary program: information and education, boat inspections and access management, remediation through decontamination of watercraft, and monitoring the river for the presence of zebra mussels.
Zebra mussels have had serious impacts to biological, recreational and economic interests at several locations throughout their current range. Native mussel populations have been virtually wiped out in some parts of Lake Erie, where clogged water-intake pipes and beaches fouled with zebra mussel carcasses have also caused problems.
The 24,000-resident community of Monroe, Michigan incurred a financial burden of $300,000 between 1989 and 1991 in responding to a zebra mussel infestation. It is estimated that the United States may spend up to $5 billion in damages by the end of the century; however, this is based on a worse case scenario. It is not yet known how the zebra mussel will respond to the aquatic environment of the St. Croix River.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 530 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies. For further information about the programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our home page at: http://midwest.fws.gov
