Take Action Locally: Monitor Aquatic Invasives in Flathead from Your Dock

Infestations of aquatic invasive species (AIS) in lakes and rivers are creeping ever closer to Montana. Keeping new aquatic invasive species out of Flathead Lake and other water bodies in our area is an important mission of the Flathead Lakers. If Zebra, Quagga, or Golden mussels came into our watershed it would be an enormous problem; they spread rapidly and they would disrupt the aquatic food web, decrease water clarity, impact fisheries, clog and damage pipes, drains, and boat hulls, and make beaches unwalkable. Once they have a foothold, they are almost impossible to eradicate.

Many Montana groups work hard to prevent mussels from entering our watershed, including Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP), the Flathead Lakers, the Swan Lakers, Whitefish Institute, Flathead Rivers Alliance, the Friends of Lake Mary Ronan, and CSKT inspectors at watercraft check stations.

In June a team of four Flathead Lakers put up new AIS signs and checked ones we’d installed before at 13 sites along the Swan river and middle and south forks of the Flathead River.

Here’s another great opportunity to be a defender of the lake and rivers. Do you have a dock at your home? FWP has a simple AIS monitoring device, called a substrate sampler, that you can hang off your dock. Hang it 1-2 ft from the bottom, check it about once a month, send an email report to FWP whether there’s nothing found, or if you found mussels or snails or anything you’re not sure about being AIS, including a photo in your email. Leave the monitor in until late fall or freezing shoreline, and put it in again next spring. Easy, yes! Helpful, yes! Contact Craig McLane, AIS Early Detection Coordinator, FWP, 406-444-1224, cmclane@mt.gov to request a sampler. You will need to provide your name and latitude/longitude of where you deploy the monitor, which helps him develop his database. Mr. McLane can get samplers delivered to the Lakers office in Polson for you to pick up.