Public input period on zebra mussels in Clear Lake extended

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/03/2024 (946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Anyone who wishes to learn more about zebra mussels in Riding Mountain National Park — or wants to share their thoughts on how the situation should be handled — now has a bigger window of time to do so.

On Wednesday, Parks Canada announced it would be extending the public comment period on its impact assessment, which will consider different ways to eradicate zebra mussels in Clear Lake.

“This is an important topic. We want to make sure that people have every opportunity to provide their input into what’s being considered,” said Dameon Wall, the park’s external relations manager.

Public interest has been constant, so extending the time period to allow more people to share their thoughts makes sense, Wall added.

“That just gives people the opportunity to provide us with that input and that understanding.”

In November of last year, Parks Canada found live zebra mussels in Clear Lake at Boat Cove. This prompted officials to search for more evidence of zebra mussels elsewhere in the lake.

During last summer’s boating season, a clump of free-floating zebra mussels was found in the lake, despite Parks Canada’s ramped-up efforts to keep the aquatic invasive species at bay. These efforts included requiring boat operators to not have used their crafts in any other body of water all year and all boats passing an initial inspection before they could receive a permit to access the lake.

To enforce the new rules, Parks Canada officials installed tags to attach boats to trailers, which informed staff that they hadn’t been in any other body of water and therefore held no risk of bringing aquatic invasive species into the lake. If the tags were removed, cut or tampered with, the boat would not be allowed to launch in the lake for the remainder of the season.

At a public input meeting held in Onanole on Dec. 13, Borden Smid, Parks Canada’s resource conservation manager for RMNP, said zebra mussel environmental DNA (eDNA) was found in one spot of the lake. This spot would freeze to the lake bed during the winter, he added.

“Zebra mussels will not survive that,” Smid said. “We get about four feet of ice.”

In February, Parks Canada announced that the first set of samples from water collected in Clear Lake between Jan. 8 and Feb. 2 had all tested negative for zebra mussel eDNA, though its website did say that zebra mussels could still be present despite the negative results.

A second set of water samples take from Feb. 2-20 tested negative. Parks Canada said at the time that samples had been taken from 34 per cent of Clear Lake, including all high-priority sections.

Since then, winter sampling has continued as Parks Canada officials sought to test all sections of the lake, dependent on weather and ice conditions.

Parks Canada’s Detailed Impact Assessment, which was developed with impact assessment professionals, outlines the environmental impacts of different forms of eradication attempts on zebra mussels in Clear Lake. It includes short-term and long-term potential impacts on plants and wildlife native to the lake and looks at how to mitigate or reduce those impacts on fish, water quality, vegetation, invertebrates and visitor experience. Finally, the plan includes an analysis of what would happen if no action was taken to try to get rid of the zebra mussels, a Wednesday press release from Parks Canada said.

The assessment is being done to make sure that Parks Canada is able to make timely decisions related to the eradication of zebra mussels based on their research. Any eradication options will be carefully considered and only chosen if practical, the release said.

The public assessment period will run until March 29. Wall hopes that anyone who has something to share about how to deal with zebra mussels in Clear Lake will take the opportunity to do so before then.

“People have another week to request that detailed impact assessment, and then provide us with comments on that,” he said. “We’re asking for people’s comments on what they want to see in that scientific document.”

To learn more about the assessment or to request a copy of it, visit Parks Canada’s website. No decisions have been made about how the upcoming boating season will be handled, Wall said.

“Parks Canada has to consider all the evidence in the input and the data on this before making the best decision possible.”

When that decision is made, Wall said, it will be widely communicated throughout the community.

» mleybourne@brandonsun.com

» X: @miraleybourne