ND ANS threat

[VoodooShaman]

Hey everyone, just wanted to share a little info about this topic.
In all my years of fishing Sakakawea (Van Hook to Government Bay), or any ND lake, I have never once been checked for ANS until this year at Van Hook. I had a great and very informative chat with the officer that day. He is the ONLY officer that covers the entire lake Sakakawea area. Obviously he is a little overwhelmed. During one of my many fishing trips to Van Hook, I counted 12 different state plates in the parking lot!! Most other states require some type of inspection before the boat touches water. In Saskatchewan, they hot water pressure wash the boat and trailer if it doesn't fails inspection!

What is our stare doing?

Well, send an email to our ND state ANS coordinator , Jessica M. Howell (jmhowell nd.gov), and you will get the EXACT same response myself and several others have received. SHE IS REPLYING WITH A FORM LETTER EMAIL!! Her departments position, in summary is, other states are doing more than we are, so they are already aware of the problem!

Fellow fisherman and boaters, please let her hear your concern! The ANS disaster is on our doorstep!

 

[MSA]

I think we should do all we can...but there's no way to stop natural hitch hikers, carried by waterfowl, turtles, waterbugs, and other semi aquatic critters that travel from one body of water to another on a daily basis.

 

[v193]

Here is the response I received, nice to know that the out of state anglers have it taken care of since they are far more educated than us.....
Thank you for your email lastweek. Your concerns about aquatic nuisance species (ANS) are certainly sharedby a lot of people, including our Department. We strive to prevent theintroduction and spread of ANS into and within North Dakota. Prevention is ourgoal because the effect of ANS can be unpredictable and once a species becomesestablished, it is nearly impossible to eradicate. To that end, we do conductsome watercraft inspections around the state during the boating season, both byseasonal employees and our wardens. However, education is perhaps one of thebest tools available to us, so we have ramped up our efforts to get our messagesto out-of-state boaters and anglers in neighboring states that tend to visitNorth Dakota most frequently. Our surveys show that non-residents tend to havethe highest awareness of ANS, and tend to take the most actions to preventtheir spread, but we still feel it is important to reach both resident andnon-resident audiences.

Thank you again for taking thetime to email me, and feel free to call or email with any other concerns orquestions.

Jessica Howell
ANS Coordinator
North Dakota Game and Fish
(701) 368-8368


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This was my original email which I got the prefab response to,

Jessica,

I just wanted to write you a quick note and state my concernabout ANS in North Dakota. It is very concerning to me that we have somany people visiting from Minnesota/South Dakota/Nebraska/Montana etc….. and wehave very little ANS enforcement in the state. Driving around the VanHook arm on a busy weekend there were 23 different state license plates in thepark and NO ONE representing our state and enforcing ANS regulation. Iwould like to see ANS inspections for every boater that enters this statebefore a license is issued. We need to be proactive and not reactive towhat not only could, but will happen to our resources if we do not start tohave more of a presense around our state.

Kind Regards,

 

[Bfishn]

We definitely need to be doing more, any out of state or Canadian boat should not be able to hit ND waters without an inspection. We are so damn concerned about the locals not pulling the plug or draining the livewell as he drives from the Mo. to his driveway in Bismarck, but we just "trust" that the out of staters coming from ANSville are doing their diligence:;:huh

 

[DerHornen]

They're only able to work with the amount of resources and manpower they're approved to have. ND state government has been in a 4 year cycle of downsizing, eliminating positions instead of backfilling, and multiple rounds of budget cuts. If they can't get approval for headcount addition it's probably more effective to focus on advertising and education.

 

[Migrator Man]

We need to implement a similar system to Wyoming. You can’t cross the border and pass a check station without stopping. You cannot launch your boat until you get an inspection performed. This is an easy system to perform and is worth the hassle. Residents don’t have to deal with it unless they leave the state. This is a ticking time bomb and doing nothing is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Lake Sakakawea will get infestested with zebra mussels eventually because they were found upstream in MT, but there is no reason to accelerate it by letting non resident boats bring it in.

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I think we should do all we can...but there's no way to stop natural hitch hikers, carried by waterfowl, turtles, waterbugs, and other semi aquatic critters that travel from one body of water to another on a daily basis.

I don’t know of any of those critters that travel from MN over to Sak or many other popular lakes in ND.

 

[shorthairsrus]

1000X non resys going into devils lake --- i am under the believe that the mussells dont like the water.

 

[dean nelson]

Like was already stated Lake Sakakawea and the Missouri River system zebra mussels as well as Eurasian watermilfoil are now a foregone conclusion with milfoil arriving any time now and probably already has. If the zebra act anything in the Missouri like they did in the red they will be here within a year or twoprobably five tops.

 

[Kurtr]

We need to implement a similar system to Wyoming. You can’t cross the border and pass a check station without stopping. You cannot launch your boat until you get an inspection performed. This is an easy system to perform and is worth the hassle. Residents don’t have to deal with it unless they leave the state. This is a ticking time bomb and doing nothing is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Lake Sakakawea will get infestested with zebra mussels eventually because they were found upstream in MT, but there is no reason to accelerate it by letting non resident boats bring it in.

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I don’t know of any of those critters that travel from MN over to Sak or many other popular lakes in ND.

waterfowl?

 

[CrankB8]

I wholeheartedly agree there needs to be checkpoints in ND before entering our waters. Not a matter of "if" but "when"!
Just today I had to contact our Licensing department to find out where or when I could expect my bow tag to arrive. The conversation went like this:

Me: I'm calling in reference to when I can expect my bow tag to arrive.
Her: When did you order it?
Me: August 13th, Do you need my verification number?
Her: It takes a week to be delivered.
Me: How many days past since the 13th?
Her: Well I don't know what you expect.
Me: My tag...seriously???
Her: Well it should be there.
Me: Can I stop in on Friday to get a duplicate if it isn't here by then. I'm heading west on a hunt and will be needing it.
Her: You can pay for one...
Me: Well that wasn't so hard was it? I guess i'll be seeing you Friday since you are too busy to find out if my license has already processed.

If they're too busy to look something up on a computer for a caller I can't imagine we will be able to have anything in the near future set up for boat inspections where they might have to pay staff to be on-site

 

[MSA]

waterfowl?

It's a mile by mile process, one river, lake, and slough, at a time. A new pothole is populated with minnows and perch within a year from waterfowl transporting eggs in their feathers.

 

[Kurtr]

It's a mile by mile process, one river, lake, and slough, at a time. A new pothole is populated with minnows and perch within a year from waterfowl transporting eggs in their feathers.

I know he was saying none of the animals you listed end up on sak from min.

 

[remm]

I wholeheartedly agree there needs to be checkpoints in ND before entering our waters. Not a matter of "if" but "when"!
Just today I had to contact our Licensing department to find out where or when I could expect my bow tag to arrive. The conversation went like this:

Me: I'm calling in reference to when I can expect my bow tag to arrive.
Her: When did you order it?
Me: August 13th, Do you need my verification number?
Her: It takes a week to be delivered.
Me: How many days past since the 13th?
Her: Well I don't know what you expect.
Me: My tag...seriously???
Her: Well it should be there.
Me: Can I stop in on Friday to get a duplicate if it isn't here by then. I'm heading west on a hunt and will be needing it.
Her: You can pay for one...
Me: Well that wasn't so hard was it? I guess i'll be seeing you Friday since you are too busy to find out if my license has already processed.

If they're too busy to look something up on a computer for a caller I can't imagine we will be able to have anything in the near future set up for boat inspections where they might have to pay staff to be on-site

Off topic, but did you buy your other licenses you need with it, general game stamp etc? If you haven't yet, your tag won't be sent. I got my bow tag a couple days after I bought it as I already had the general game stuff.

On the ANS note, it's very hard for me to believe that with 10's of thousands of boats we have coming to DL every summer that we don't already have one or more of the above mentioned species. It's only a matter of time before they become evident... Add in the hundreds of duck boats to that as well...

 

[Enslow]

The NDGF is so busy spending this years budget before finalizing next years budget that they are limited on time and money haha. Say hello zebras �� muscles

 

[Captainbrad]

Its coming and soon. I dare not say any more at this time.

 

[shorthairsrus]

over any fishing boat, duck, goose, turtle---------- lifts and the worse is those big ass ski boats with the bladder --- that is the number one uno reason those bstrds spread.

PS i did see what looked like a zebra at the DL ramp last weekend -- before i could take a further look at it a white bass ate it.

 

[Enslow]

Multi birds don’t transport zebra mussels. They can fly yes but do they transport zebra mussels ? NO!

 

[MSA]

Multi birds don’t transport zebra mussels. They can fly yes but do they transport zebra mussels ? NO!

So many species of fish eggs, insect larva, and algae, spores, etc get stuck in waterfowl feathers, but tiny zebra mussel larva can't?

 

[dean nelson]

I know he was saying none of the animals you listed end up on sak from min.

Just with a quick check I can see 1,600 mallards banded in MN shot in ND many out in Sak country. Another 600 honkers and generally a few dozen or more of every other duck species not to mention I'll pretty well guarantee if I flip it around and look for ducks banded in North Dakota shot in Minnesota it's going to light up like a Christmas tree.

 

[Kurtr]

Just with a quick check I can see 1,600 mallards banded in MN shot in ND many out in Sak country. Another 600 honkers and generally a few dozen or more of every other duck species not to mention I'll pretty well guarantee if I flip it around and look for ducks banded in North Dakota shot in Minnesota it's going to light up like a Christmas tree.

i 100%agree