Quagga Mussel treatment has begun in the Snake River Canyon
It’s something the Idaho State Department of Agriculture has been working around the clock to plan and now implement.
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —Tuesday was the first day in the treatment plan for the Quagga Mussel.
The first in the ten day plan the department will use to eliminate the invasive species.
It’s something the Idaho State Department of Agriculture has been working around the clock to plan and now implement.
Staging boats started Monday as the department had to fly into parts of the Snake River. They also started setting up the copper-based product, Natrix. Driving out empty containers and filling them at the sites do to their weight.
It’s an aggressive process that is needed.
ISDA Director Chanel Tewalt says, “We’ve said several times that none of us wanted to be in this position and it’s a really hard thing to go through the process of knowing we have to implement a treatment. But we also know that if we do nothing it’s worse. So, we’ve tried to be really transparent about what is going to happen and set expectations with the public and give documents to reach out to us and find out other information. So, we know that this effort is intended to eradicate all life stages of the quagga mussel.
During the treatment process ISDA and supporting agencies will be staffed in the treatment area assessing. They also have plans if they find this one isn’t working.
“We are going to be going through a really extensive and robust monitoring schedule after we get done with this treatment to see if the effort was successful. We’ve also built in a lot of contingencies that we are going to try this but we know that we have lots of plans in the works if that is not what we see in the water.”
The Quagga Mussel treatment plan and closures can be found here.
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