You may have heard that various kinds of invasive plants and animals create problems for species that are native to an area. In the case of the quagga mussel, which only grows to the size of a thumbnail, its effects extend beyond the natural ecology and into the built environment.
The quagga mussel, and the related zebra mussel, came from Eastern Europe to the Great Lakes in the 1980s. In the last dozen years or so, quagga mussels have been found in California, Nevada and Utah. They last year along the Snake River.
Rick Boatner, the invasive species coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, says the invasive mussels are what鈥檚 known as filter feeders.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e removing the lowest part of the food web out of the water system, the phytoplankton and stuff like that,鈥� Boatner said. 鈥淪o now you will not have the food needed for our salmon fry and steelhead trout species. So that鈥檚 eliminated, and their population is gonna drop.鈥�
Boatner says the impact on various kinds of water systems is enormous.
鈥淭hey also reproduce quickly, and they like to clog pipes. So anything that draws water from a system they鈥檙e in, it鈥檚 gonna get completely clogged,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o now to keep pipes open, they鈥檙e gonna basically have to use ramrods to open them up on a regular basis or chemicals or, you know, a UV treatment, some type of treatment so they can keep their water pipes open.鈥�
That means everything from municipal water to irrigation and hydropower. The costs are from the 鈥渦pper millions to billions of dollars each year if you look at the whole system,鈥� Boatner says. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 going to be a tremendous economic drain.鈥�
One reason the quagga mussel hasn鈥檛 taken hold yet is that Oregon set up inspection stations in 2010. Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah also have inspection stations, which have likely helped to protect Oregon as well.
But Boatner says even beefing up inspections and monitoring . And once they get in, he says, they will 鈥渇orever change how we use water in Oregon.鈥�
Boatner hopes Oregon will follow the lead of Washington, Idaho and other states in putting more money into prevention. , he says, is still the cheapest way to respond to the threat. He hopes that will give wildlife managers as much time as possible to discover ways to kill the mussels once they arrive. Currently, there are no good methods that do not also kill other aquatic life.
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