‘We take this seriously’: Director of ISDA in boat traffic outside the state, Dejillones de Idaho Quagga

Twin Falls (Idaho Capital Sun) -Idaho needs to have a “critical conversation” about how boat traffic is seen outside the State, Chanel Tewalt, director of the Idaho State Agriculture, told Yidaho legislators on Tuesday.

In a presentation to the Agricultural Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, Tewalt updated legislators about the progress of the department to eliminate the invasive quagga mussels in the Snake River, a mission that has cost the State millions.

Quagga’s mussels were first discovered in September 2023 on the Snake Middle River near Twin Falls, marking the first time the Quagga mussels were found in the Columbia River basin. While the department’s program to eliminate mussels is very recurring and efforts have reduced mussel populations in the river, Tewalt said the State must communicate better and enforce its Strict vessel inspection Requirements for people who visit Idaho with ships.

“Idaho’s law says that it will not transport a boat that has ballast water. It will not be launched in Idaho waters if it is a navigator outside the state without having an inspection, ”said Tewalt.

Tewalt said that the visitors of the states with severe water problems, such as Arizona or Colorado, do not share the conservation of Idaho and the agricultural priorities, which, according to her, raises the greatest risk to the State.

“When we transport a cattle trailer through California, we know that there are different rules that when we transport home,” he said, adding that many idhes traveling with their cattle in California have been fined.

“We need that same type of concept, that same scaffolding,” Tewalt said. “When people carry Idaho boats, you should know that we take this seriously.”

Greatest Idaho Quagga Mussel Elimination Plan at the time in the US.

At the beginning of his presentation, Tewalt discussed the story of Idaho’s Invasive species program.

In it End of the 1980sQuagga and the zebra mussels were detected in the US for the first time. The species came from central Europe and quickly infested the great lakes. From that point, Quagga and Zebra Mussels moved west. In response, the Idaho Legislature in 2008 approved the Invasive species law Calling the Idaho State Agriculture to establish boat verification stations and implement an invasive species program.

“As much as they are a problem in the great lakes, these things do not depend on irrigation, and do not depend on hydroelectric energy like us in Idaho,” Tewalt told the committee.

Invasive mussels represent a threat to Idaho and the Columbia river basin by:

• Obstruction pipes used to administer water, energy, agriculture, recreation and other uses
• Eliminate the biological landscape of Idaho
• Cost taxpayers millions of dollars in real and indirect costs

The Quagga de Idaho Muscle Elimination Plan has been the largest of its kind ever tried in the United States, Tewalt told the committee. The Department in Autumn of 2023 and 2024 used Natrix, a pesticide based on copper registered by the Environmental Protection Agency used to kill invasive aquatic species. However, the 2023 treatment resulted in the death of thousands of fish, or six or seven tons of fish that had floated on the surface of the river. Among those fish were 48 white sturks, the oldest of which was 35 years old and up to eight feet long, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

“As heartbreaking as it is for people who have worked all their lives in natural resources, the alternative is worse,” Tewalt told the committee. “Nothing is worse.”

During the 2024 legislative session, legislators approved $ 6.6 million in the 2025 fiscal year budget for invasive species prevention efforts, with emphasis on the Twin Falls area, The Sun previously reported. Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture of the State of Idaho spent $ 1.5 million in Natrix in 2023 and $ 2.1 million in 2024 after increasing its use by 40% in more areas of the river, said Department spokesman Sydney Kennedy Al Sun.

The department has seen progress, but the effort is still ongoing.

“We chill the population, but finding mussels is unacceptable,” Tewalt said, adding that mussels can reproduce between 2,000 and one million eggs per year.

Nic Zurfluh, Head of the Office of the Invasive Species Program of the Department, presented together with Tewalt. The department carried out Larva sampling In summer, water temperatures to track the presence of invasive species. And until now, he said that department staff has not seen the substrate, or sediments, land and other materials at the bottom of the river, completely covered with quagga mussels.

“We actually go through 2024 without observing an adult mussel,” Zurfluh said.

Zurfluh said that Quagga muscle elimination efforts have required an association between local, state and private entities. From working with experts in hydrology, Idaho Power and the department of Lands de Idaho to laboratories outside the State and the Simplot company, said that the department has trusted its experience and dedication, all promoted by its commitment to natural resources and the medium atmosphere.

Monitoring the Mid-Snake river for quagga mussel larvae remains a continuous effort, and access to water from Pillar Falls to Twin Falls Dam remains closed. To obtain updates on the elimination efforts of Quagga de Idaho, visit the official Idaho invasive species website.