Jodi Summit
TOWER- The East Two River, Tower’s historic entryway into Lake Vermilion, was the focus of this year’s Vermilion Lake Association’s Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Field Day. The annual field day is a chance for St. Louis County staffers who have oversight of the county’s AIS prevention efforts and grant awards to see the projects they are funding and get a better understanding of the over 1,500 volunteer hours put in by VLA members on AIS prevention efforts in the past year.
The AIS prevention efforts by the lake association are mostly funded by grants from the county. The year, said local AIS Program Co-Leader Jeff Lovgren, the VLA received approximately $42,000 for AIS projects. Funding received varies year to year, he said, depending on the costs of projects the VLA has planned.
Marshall Helmberger
REGIONAL Researchers from the Natural Resources Research Institute were on Lake Vermilion this week as they work to refine a high-tech testing method that could eventually make the hunt for aquatic invasive species, or AIS, far more efficient and effective. They’re getting logistical help with the project from the Vermilion Lake Association, which has long played a major role in heading off AIS on the lake.
“Everything that lives in the lake releases some DNA,” said Josh Dumke, a senior research scientist at the NRRI, which is affiliated with the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Whether plant or animal, tissue cells containing DNA are regularly sloughed off into the water, Dumke said, either through skin cells, mucous, or urine. That means, in theory, that water samples from a lake could eventually help researchers detect the presence of AIS far more effectively than current methods, particularly on large lakes like Vermilion.