LAKE COUNTY — At the Lakeport city council meeting Tuesday, Lakeport citizen Suzanne Lyons asked whether the city plans to work with other cities or communities around the lake on the issue of quagga mussels. In short, the response from the council was “yes, we have brochures in the lobby.”
But the city of Clearlake and the city of Lakeport are working alongside the county to educate the public about quagga mussels, according to Carolyn Rutton, water resources program coordinator for the county. The quagga mussel is an invasive species first spotted in the U.S. in the Great Lakes. They reproduce rapidly and are no larger than a fingernail.
The larvae and mussels can attach to watercraft and “hitchhike” their way to new waters.
In addition to creating flyers and brochures, the two incorporated cities in the county will have representatives on the brand-new Clear Lake Foundation, which aims to provide funding to battle the quagga and educate the public about the mussel. The first meeting is Friday at 3 p.m. in Lakeport”s City Hall chambers.
After numerous workshops, meetings and discussions about the quagga mussel in the Board of Supervisor”s chambers and city hall, arguably the best idea to fight the mussel is that of a K-9 unit that will be trained to sniff out the mussel and its larvae, Rutton said.
The idea of training dogs originated with Lynette Shimek, fish and game warden, and state-wide K-9 unit coordinator. K-9”s are trained to detect many odors, such as abalone, gun powder and deer. The main biologist who will be documenting the research on quagga-sniffing dogs is Mary Cablk, who has conducted research on the success of K-9”s sniffing out desert tortoises, according to Shimek.
Shimek”s idea of training K-9”s to detect the mussel has spread to other states, including Washington state, which is looking into establishing a similar training program.
In terms of the absence of signage that was Lyons” primary concern, the county is using $10,000 granted by the Board of Supervisors to pay for four signs. They will be up by the end of winter at the major routes into Lake County.
In addition, county entities are keeping in contact daily with the state, whom Ruttan says is “on top of things” due to the presence there of the mussel in numerous lakes, reservoirs and the L.A. aqueduct. “The county is on their direct mailing list for any information with regard to quaggas. They put out stuff daily, so we know what they know,” Ruttan said.
Meanwhile, 11 quagga-traps placed around the lake have shown no signs of the mussel, and Shimek is getting ready to help train 18 dogs to detect the mussels during two training sessions next spring. The dogs will help in the effort to contain and eradicate the mussels in the L.A. area. They can already detect as little as two tiny mussels on a watercraft in about two minutes. The goal is to train them to be able to detect the odor of larvae as well.
After the dogs finish training in April and are put to use in the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, wardens and scientists will focus on depth detection. “If the mussels are in an intake pipe, we”ll want to know how far down the dogs will be able to detect them. My belief is that the dogs will be able to smell them to a depth of at least 15 feet,” Shimek said.
Lake County will have two dogs, one handled by Shimek. “When there are bass tournaments or other events with heavy use of watercraft, possibly from infected waters, we can walk around the boats and clear each one in about two minutes. Whereas a warden or trained person would spend 10-15 minutes to check each boat,” Shimek said.
Another use of the dogs will be to further educate public on the mussels. “One of our highest priorities is education. We”ll take them to schools, sportsman”s expositions, any venue to get people to listen to the threat our wildlife and habitat faces,” Shimek said.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
