For credit, my group analyzed the UT DWR\'s current aquatic invasive species policy and presented three policy recommendations.

1. Stopping the invasion

2. • Utah Society for Aquatic Protection (USAP)
• Concerned about the future of Utah’s waterways
• Presenting to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
regarding Quagga and Zebra Mussels
• Mussels cause significant damage to waterways and
threaten every potential water recreation activity

3. Photo credit:
USFWS

4. Photo credit:
USFWS

5. The history of the invasion

6. • Zebra and Quagga mussels were originally found in
Eurasia
• Transported by boats and water equipment
• Arrived in the US via infested ships in 1989
• As an invasive species, they spread across the US like
wildfire
• Some waterways in the Eastern US are now
contaminated beyond repair

8. • Mussels attach themselves to anything solid
• They clog water intakes and cover boats, docks, water
shores, etc.
• Removal is extremely expensive

11. • The Utah Department of Wildlife
Resources has found species in
Utah
• Sand Hollow Reservoir: Infested
• Red Fleet Reservoir and Electric Lake:
Detected
• Something must be done

12. The current situation

13. • Utah’s current policy is very basic
• Very basic prevention attitude
• Monitoring
• Education
• Conservation officer training
• Self-certification
• Makes it illegal to transport invasive species between bodies of
water

14. • Recommends that all boaters clean, drain, dry, and
inspect their boats
• Warns boaters to be prepared to fill out a certification
form that uses the honor system to show that a self
inspection was completed

15. • Self-certification is based on the honor system and has
little enforcement
• Decontamination of boats is only highly recommended –
There is no law
• Current policy is not aggressive
• Mandates education, training, and monitoring
• Does not mandate that the invasion is halted

16. • Potential action at Lake Pueblo in Colorado
• Removing mussels by hand
• Lake drawdown: lowering the level of water in the lake
• These actions are not plausible
• Current Colorado policy calls for mandatory boat
inspections, but it is too late to save Lake Pueblo from
the invasion
• Virginia: Millbrook Quarry
• Pumped 174,000 gallons of potassium into the lake
• The action was effective, but…
• Efficiency?
• Cost?
• Impacts?

17. • States with a policy similar to Utah’s say it does not work
• Education does little to halt the invasion
• Water usage fees can possibly change the attitudes of
water users but they are not enough
• Mandatory inspections only work if they are restrictive
and are accompanied by other methods
• Lake Powell

18. How can we fix the problem?

19. • Alternative A: Mandatory inspection stations
• Alternative B: Tax for All
• Alternative C: Widespread prevention, inspection and
education approach

20. • Create mandatory inspections for all vehicles transporting
water vessels at locations deemed necessary by the
DWR
• Inspection stations would be free
• Every station would have at least two inspectors
• Data would be collected for every vessel and would be
used to track the vessel’s use on waterways across the
US

21. Advantages Disadvantages
• Basic system • Basic system
• Studies have shown this • Funding would be cut
approach to be useful from other programs
• Could hinder the
formation of other
programs by the DNR

22. • Implement a water use tax for every citizen of Utah
• Taxes would be used to fund an inspection system
• All Utah residents would be required to pay for prevention
• Infected waterways would be shut down
• Boaters would be required to obtain a license
• Demonstrate safe operation of a vessel
• Demonstrate knowledge of invasive species prevention
• Demonstrate proper decontamination and inspection of a vessel
• As with Alternative A, water use data systems would be
used

23. Advantages Disadvantages
• Effective and funded • Utahans would be against
a state-wide tax
• Boaters would resist
licensing

24. • Tax usage for all individuals launching a vessel on Utah’s
waterways
• Tax would be collected from the sale of vessel registration
stickers
• Registration stickers would be tracked electronically by
scanning a bar code to view vessel’s use on infected waters
• Data collected could also be used to monitor the effectiveness
of the program
• Revenue from the tax would only be used to fund the zebra
and quagga mussel prevention policy (education, mandatory
inspections, etc.)
• Place inspectors and inspection stations at every waterway in
Utah
• No watercraft may launch when the inspection stations are

25. Advantages Possible Disadvantages
• Comprehensive program • Requires recreationists to
• Implements multiple pay
methods of prevention

26. • Three alternatives
• Alternative A: Mandatory inspection stations
• Alternative B: Tax for All
• Alternative C: Widespread prevention, inspection and education
approach
• Utah is in peril of losing water recreation abilities
• Current policy is not effective
• Policy must be amended
• We recommend using Alternative C to implement a
cohesive and comprehensive policy that reverses the
current predicament
• Change can not wait: we must halt the invasion now!