AIS Prevention Funding to Benefit East Two River and Eagles Nest Township

St Louis County Commissioners have authorized the distribution of $23,441 to the Sportsmen’s Club of Lake Vermilion to expand during 2016 a zebra mussel habitat assessment project in Lake Vermilion’s eastern headwaters. Moderately elevated calcium in some Eagles Nest Township lakes and in East Two River raise the concern that zebra mussels – a serious aquatic invasive species (AIS) – might be able to live in those waters should they be accidentally introduced by boaters.

The Tower-Breitung Wastewater Board, the Eagles Nest Township Lakes Association, and UMD’s Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) have partnered with the Sportsmen’s Club to take water samples and measure stream flow rates to understand all natural and man-made calcium sources and how they vary seasonally. In addition, the Sportsmen’s Club will continue the zebra mussel habitat study begun in 2015 along the eastern shore of Lake Vermilion.

During 2017, the Sportsmen’s Club and its partners hope to begin correcting or managing man-made calcium sources to reduce concentrations to a level where a zebra mussel population could not become established.

Find more info on the Sportsmen’s Club’s commitment to AIS prevention at Lake Vermilion here.