Strung out

COEUR d'ALENE - Over breakfast snacks, coffee and tea, Republican state Rep. Frank Henderson introduced folks gathered Saturday morning at the Lake City Senior Center to a rather unattractive invasive species - the quagga mussel.

It's similar to the infamous zebra mussel, and sometimes referred to as its evil cousin. The freshwater mollusks are alien to North America and can be ugly for both economic and aesthetic reasons.

Henderson, of Post Falls, demonstrated for the roughly two dozen attendees of the weekly meeting of the Panhandle Coalition just how industrious the "little buggers" can be.

He brought in a sample.

In four weeks on a thin piece of rope in Lake Mead, the shell creatures crusted inches thick around it. Lake Mead currently is infested with the quagga mussel, which are more prolific than the zebra mussel. The mussels move to each new body of water it infests by hitchhiking rides on watercraft.

"It occurred to me, there are a lot of people who do not know what would happen if these little buggers get into our lakes and streams," Henderson said. "They just grow, and grow, and grow."

He asked the audience to imagine what the fast-growing mussels would do to irrigation systems, city water systems, and power-generating systems.

Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, also at the meeting, said zebra mussels have devastated the Great Lakes area.

"They've spent tens of millions of dollars a year at the Great Lakes, just to do some cleaning," Nonini said. "You can't eradicate them once they're here. It would devastate the pristine waters we have around here," creating new expenses for cleaning.

"It's not a glamorous issue, but it's a serious issue," Nonini said.

He said Idaho has to have enough money to pay for inspection stations and public information.

"We've got to control all the entrances to Idaho, at least with some signage," Nonini said.

Henderson borrowed the specimen from state Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, who has done a lot of work learning about the mussels and informing others.

Anderson, interviewed by phone after the meeting, said the quagga is similar to the zebra mussel, but will actually out-compete it - making its potential arrival even more dangerous.

Along with legitimate concerns state legislators have about budget deficits this year, "We certainly can't forget about these things. That rope is a good indicator of how fast they grow. We've got to do everything we can to keep them out," Anderson said.

The $10 from the invasive species sticker that boaters had to have on their vessels last year was money well spent, Anderson said. Some boats with the critters were caught by Idaho inspectors, he said.

To pay for invasive species fighting efforts, boaters in Idaho will have to pay $10 this year too, if the boat is motorized and registered in Idaho. It costs $20 if the boat is registered out of state, and $5 if the boat is non-motorized, Anderson said.

The mussels eat microscopic marine plants, altering the food chain in waters, and they spoil the water quality. Boats with the mussels, zebra or quagga, need to be cleaned, drained, and dried to get rid of them, he said.

"Drying is very important, because the microscopic young haven't formed their shell" and can be floating in the water and not easily visible.

"You'll lose your fishery with the mussels," Anderson said. "You don't get those ecosystems back."

According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, quagga mussels can spread to other inland waters either in their immature form transported in water hidden in livewells, bilges, and motors or as adults attached to boat hulls, engines, aquatic weeds, or other surfaces.

Quagga mussels are native to the Caspian and Black seas of Eastern Europe, according to the department.

Henderson said currently there is no proposal in the state Legislature to increase the costs boaters pay to contribute to the battle against invasive species.

Any proposal to increase those costs would ram up against an overall effort by a majority of legislators to prevent any fee increases.

Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d'Alene, who attended the coalition meeting, said if the legislature can find a way to compensate vendors that sell invasive species stickers, that would likely increase the number of places the stickers would be sold, and go some distance in the battle against the mussels.

"The mussels could create a great economic loss," Sayler said. "It's a very serious threat."

Sen. John Goedde, and Rep. Marge Chadderdon, both Coeur d'Alene Republicans, also were at the coalition meeting this week.

A coalition meeting is scheduled for next Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Post Falls Senior Center, 1215 E. Third Ave.