WAPOA, CONFRONTING AND TACKLING AIS ISSUES ALL SUMMER!
by Marv Erdman     September 2011

  WAPOA participated in stakeholder meetings and was in contact with state and DNR officials to help formulate new AIS regulations that were signed into law by Governor Dayton and became effective on May 28. 

  The "Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Legislation Summary" can be found at the DNR's website at this address:  http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/invasives/summary_ais_laws_2011.pdf

  When WAPOA discovered earlier this summer that the 2011 Camp Confidence Pro Bass Team fishing tournament  hosted by Moonlite Bay was going to be held on both Gull Lake and the Whitefish Chain on June 24 & 25, it warranted looking into since Gull is a recently designated zebra mussel infested lake. 

  After learning that the first day of the tournament was on Gull (infested) and the second day was on Whitefish (not infested), WAPOA initiated meetings with all parties and everyone agreed that it made a lot more sense reversing the fishing days to Whitefish on the 24th and Gull on the 25th.

  While initial contacts with DNR Fisheries for switching the tournament permits were met with resistance due to weekend limitations and the number of tournaments that are allowed on lakes in a given year, subsequent conversations by WAPOA with DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr were successful in getting the dates/lakes and permits switched.

  Similar tournaments exist elsewhere around the state where pre-fishing and actual tournament fishing can be hazardous to non-infested lakes when recently coming off infested lakes. 

WAPOA will stay on top of this and work with the DNR in the future to ensure common sense prevails when scheduling and permitting multi-lake tournaments around the state of Minnesota.

The state shutdown occurred on July 1, lasted almost 3 weeks, and of course encompassed the 4th of July holiday weekend, a major timeframe for being "up north at the cabin." 

It had a major impact on WAPOA's efforts to help combat the spread of AIS and educate the public concerning the dangers of AIS to our public waters:

1)  WAPOA's joint DNR Public Awareness project with LARA (CWC Lakes And Rivers Alliance) was supposed to come to a screeching halt because our "in-kind" labor hours of assembling and delivering packets of AIS information would not be allowed for "matching" dollars the DNR is providing us for our printing costs under a shutdown. 

WAPOA decided to allow our volunteers to continue working, hoping we can make up the possible lost "in-kind" labor matching with renewed efforts over the remaining months of the boating season.  If not, we might need to spend valuable WAPOA funds to match those DNR dollars.

2)  The state informed WAPOA that DNR interns supplied to us under their Watercraft Inspection Program (WIP) grant to both WAPOA and FOLH (Friends of Lower Hay) would be pulled off the public accesses during the shutdown -- again losing valuable coverage over the busy holiday period and subsequent three weeks.

3)  WAPOA's joint WIP grant with Crow Wing County was not affected since the two interns were classified as county employees, not state.  But this required pulling the interns off their normal fill-in schedules as we attempted to balance coverage of our many public accesses based on priority and usage with the limited people resources we had to work with.

4)  WAPOA became aware of a milfoil scare in the channel between Rush and Whitefish lakes on July 8th.  A property owner, a DNR intern, and a Conservation Officer thought they might have uncovered a possible infestation of Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM).  The DNR had been called out on June 30 to confirm or deny the presence of EWM.  It turned out to be an extensive growth of northern milfoil, a native and non-invasive aquatic plant.  June 30th was one day before the state shutdown; July 8th was of course during the shutdown.  WAPOA was finally able to contact the DNR on July 22 to confirm that it was northern milfoil, not Eurasian, and get out of scramble mode.

 But what is all this telling us?  Is AIS getting our attention yet?  WAPOA did not want to leave our lakes unprotected.  We wanted to continue our projects and grants as much as was feasible and possible under the law.  Please contact your legislators to let them know a state shutdown has an extreme ripple effect that jeopardizes our ability to help protect our lakes.

WAPOA responded to a request by Dennis & Judy Madigan and provided some of its WIP volunteers for monitoring and inspecting the many off-lake boats coming in and participating in the annual Whitefish Chain Antique & Classic Wood Boat Rendezvous held at Moonlite Bay on July 23.

WAPOA will participate in a September 23rd AIS Legislative Forum coordinated by the Pine River Watershed Alliance and Minnesota Waters to be attended by the Senate and House Environmental Committee Chairs along with several regional legislators.

  WAPOA will present the BLAISTF (Brainerd Lakes AIS Task Force) story of a local, citizen-led concept/project that received support from a state agency and legislators which ultimately led to a successful statewide effort -- the mandatory Lake Service Provider (LSP) training/certification that became law on May 28th.  Check out the AIS Prevention Legislation Summary mentioned above.

All this speaks volumes for the strong and continued need of funds and volunteers to protect our waters.  Please join WAPOA today.  And please volunteer your time if you can to help us in our endeavors to educate the public about the importance of stopping the spread of AIS.