Help Stop Invasive Mussels

Help do your part to keep invasive species out of Colorado.

As fishing and boating season winds down Colorado Parks & Wildlife is asking for your continued help to keep Quagga and Zebra Mussels out of Colorado lakes. Being a fisherman and boat owner I've heard about invasive species for many years. Quagga and Zebra Mussels have now been found in Lake Powell. That's too close for comfort.

I touched on this yesterday when posting about the algae bloom in Blue Mesa Reservoir. Now that you're taking your boat out for the last time this season, it's also time to have it inspected for invasives. “I recommend that you bring your boat to a location like Highline so that we can still go through and inspect and decontaminate. So you don’t have mussels on your boat. You know, the good thing about being the offseason is that they will die over the winter, but you don’t want to show up at a body of water next spring with mussels still on your boat. Once they’re attached they will stay attached even when they’re dead,” says Alan Martinez, Park Manager of Highline Lake State Park.

Mussels are a big problem because they build up on pipes and clog infrastructure in lakes and reservoirs. The bigger problem is they remove plankton from the water, which is the foundation for any quality fishery

Credit: KKCO11News