Boating Restrictions Implemented

From July 15, 1993 (update #17)

ST. CROIX FALLS - Boating restrictions have been implemented by the National Park Service to protect the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and its watershed from zebra mussel infestation. Vessels traveling from waters inhabited by zebra mussels will not be allowed on the St. Croix River above the mouth of the Apple River at the Arcola sandbar north of Stillwater and just south of Marine on St. Croix. A floating station staffed by National Park Service rangers will be placed at the restricted area near the Arcola sandbar this summer. Restrictions will mainly affect recreational boaters; towboats and barges cannot navigate in the restricted area. The restrictions will be implemented through the park service's regulatory authority. According to Roger Holmes, director of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish & Wildlife, these unusual measures were taken because "the St. Croix River is home to forty-one species of native mussels, and two of these, the Higgins' eye pearly mussel and the winged mapleleaf mussel, are on the federal endangered species list." Holmes added that the winged mapleleaf is found nowhere else in the world except for a 10-mile stretch of the St. Croix River. WDNR Secretary George Meyer concurred with the boating restrictions. "Although there is no current legal authority in Wisconsin to restrict navigation or to regulate the transportation, possession or introduction of zebra mussels," Meyer said, "the federal emergency order is the only available mechanism to establish these needed controls for the 1993 navigation season.".

ID: 19930715-6.

The Zebra Mussel Update was a 4- to 8-page quarterly national newsletter published by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute from May 1990 through May 1997. The ZMU documented the spread of the zebra mussel -- an exotic nuisance mussel -- through North America's freshwater environments, especially the Great Lakes, and on efforts to control it.