Proposed cut in local aid to prevent aquatic invasive species sparks fears of more infested lakes

It’s a familiar summer sight at public landings on lakes across Minnesota: inspectors examining boats and trailers, searching for clinging plants or hitchhiking mussels.

For the past decade, Minnesota has distributed about $10 million a year to counties for aquatic invasive species prevention. Gov. Tim Walz’s proposed budget reduced that amount by 50 percent.

Some lake advocates worry cutting funding to counties to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species could reduce those efforts, and potentially lead to more infested waters.

“From a statewide standpoint, the math is clear — if we cut the funding for prevention, new infestations will go up,” said Nick Phelps, director of the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

Crow Wing County, home of the Brainerd Lakes Area, receives about $450,000 a year, and uses the majority of it to hire watercraft inspectors. 

This summer, the county plans to have inspectors spend more than 14,000 hours checking boats and trailers for invasive species at 43 public landings, said Jessica Shea, operations manager in the county's land services department. 

“A lot of it is based on how busy are they?” she said. “Because the main point of the AIS program is education. So we want to catch as many people as we can and educate them.”

Shea said those efforts likely would be reduced, if Walz’s proposed cut becomes a reality.

“If our funding gets cut in half, what we’re able to do is going to get cut in half,” she said.

There’s evidence to show prevention efforts are helping slow the spread of invasive species to new lakes.

A couple of years ago, the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Research Center staged an experiment to find out whether watercraft inspections really were working.

They loaded up a boat with invasive species and sent it to about 50 different landings. They found inspectors were about 80 percent effective at removing the AIS from boats coming or going out of the lake, Phelps said.

“That’s 30 to 40 percent better than just the general public who are exposed to the same situations,” he said.

Over the past decade, invasive species such as zebra mussels have continued to spread to more Minnesota lakes. But Phelps said since the county prevention program started, the pace of new discoveries of AIS has slowed.

“We flattened the curve,” he said. “Fewer lakes are becoming infested every year than there was the year before that. The rate just slowed down, and that’s because prevention works.”

If state prevention aid is cut, lake advocates worry that trend will reverse at a time when new invasive species, such as hydrilla, threaten to invade Minnesota. 

“Hydrilla is like Eurasian water milfoil on steroids,” said Jeff Forester, executive director of the Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates, a nonprofit that represents lake associations and property owners. “It’s really hard to kill and it’s really easy to transport. It really changes the nature of lakes.”

Many lake associations contribute their own money toward expanded boat inspections, education and early detection of invasive species. But Forester argues lakes are public, like state parks, and the responsibility for protecting them shouldn’t fall solely to those who live nearby.

Paul McDonald, a commissioner in northern St. Louis County, said his county receives about $700,000 a year in local AIS prevention aid. It helps pay for about 25,000 watercraft inspections at more than 170 boat landings.

“It has been successful in keeping out invasives and containing the ones we already have in St Louis County,” McDonald said. “To continue the program, it would fall on the levy and the local taxpayers.”

Beyond inspections, counties also use the state aid for education programs and to purchase do-it-yourself decontamination stations. Some counties, including Crow Wing, also give grants to lake associations for early detection or treatment of invasive species.

Last fall, starry stonewort was discovered in Rush Lake, part of the Whitefish Chain of Lakes north of Brainerd. The invasive algae spreads quickly, and can be devastating to lakes. It can form dense mats that choke out native plants and make boating and swimming difficult.

The Whitefish Area Property Owners Association quickly mounted a counter-attack. President Tony Coffey said divers from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office surveyed the infested area, and they cordoned it off with a silt fence.

“We surrounded the area,” Coffey said. “Then we put together literally an army of about 50 people to coordinate hand-pulling with the DNR.”

The Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center helped develop a treatment plan. Phelps said they’re optimistic they’ve contained the starry stonewort to the local area.

Crow Wing County reimbursed the Whitefish association for most of their expenses. Coffey said they’ve hoping for more county funding to continue treating the starry stonewort.

They’ve also applied to a private foundation for a grant to have divers survey more lakes in the chain, and to train more people to be invasive species detectors.

“We’re looking to increase the number of people that can be eyes on the lake, looking for the stuff,” Coffey said.

State lawmakers are currently working on a two-year budget. They must pass one by July 1 to avoid a government shutdown.

The local AIS prevention aid is distributed by the Minnesota Department of Revenue, with DNR staff providing technical expertise to counties.

Shane Delaney, assistant revenue commissioner, called the AIS prevention efforts “important work,” and said that’s why Walz proposed to reduce the aid rather than eliminate it as part of cost-cutting measures.

Kelly Pennington, invasive species supervisor with the Minnesota DNR, said it’s difficult to speculate about the impacts of the proposed aid cut.

“I think what we continue to do is just work, both as the DNR and with all our local partners, on preventing and managing aquatic invasive species in the state,” Pennington said.

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