As the Colorado cold gives way to desert balminess on the Western Slope, Highline Lake State Park is preparing for the inevitable surge in boats.
The park has seen a steady climb in visitors in recent years, including a 2020 boom of people who wanted to get out of the house during quarantines and lockdowns. While the numbers are good for the park, they arenât without their inherent challenges.
Each year, the park spends approximately $82,000 on staffing and methods for mussel inspections. Invasive mussels, if untreated in public parks, can damage water storage, delivery systems and boats. These mussels often attach themselves to boats that carry them into other bodies of water.
3/11/21 - Vermont Agency of Natural Resources staff scientists were alerted last week that an aquarium plant sold within Vermont and throughout the country may contain an invasive aquatic animal species, zebra mussels
(Dreissena polymorpha). The aquarium plant commonly known as moss balls, may be sold under names including “Beta Buddy Marimo Balls,” “Mini Marimo Moss Balls,” and “Marimo Moss Ball Plant” and were available to purchase in large department stores or through online sales. While the plant is benign, the plants may harbor zebra mussels within the plant, or within the packaging. Zebra mussels are a small freshwater mollusk aquatic invasive species that can reproduce rapidly and cause detrimental harm to the ecological balance within a water system. They can also cause an economic burden, clogging pipes and other underwater infrastructure. As filter-feeders, they prolifically consume microscopic aquatic life, which causes a potential impa
Photo: Kilian Fichou/AFP (Getty Images)
Balls of moss commonly found in aquariums are threatening to push the zebra mussel invasion further across the U.S., wildlife officials are warning. Contaminated moss balls have been found in pet stores in 21 states in recent weeks, and both officials and the pet supply industry are scrambling to contain the problem before it’s too late.
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Judging by their name alone, the fingernail-sized zebra mussel might not seem like the most fearsome creature to be worried about. What makes them so dangerous, though, is their ability to adapt. Once introduced to a new lake or other body of freshwater, they can quickly crowd out and devastate local populations of other mussel species. Their rapid growth isn’t great for us either, since they can clog up the intake pipes in our water treatment and power plants, while also damaging boats and fishing equipment. That puts pressure on already-strained infrastructure dealing with more deluges a
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