Lake Havasu Marine Association Awarded Grant to Fight Invasive Species

[Wendi]

For immediate release: August 6, 2013
For more information: Jim Salscheider, president & CEO, LHMA
(928) 208-2442 jims@lhmarineassn.com
LAKE HAVASU MARINE ASSOCIATION RECEIVES FEDERAL GRANT TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF AQUATIC INVASIVE SPECIES
“Sticker A Mussel” Campaign Chosen as the Comprehensive Invasive Species Program at Lake Havasu
Lake Havasu City, AZ: Preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species throughout freshwater lakes and rivers of the western United States has become a high priority, especially on the lower Colorado River now infested with a growing population of quagga mussels. In response, the Lake Havasu Marine Association (LHMA), in cooperation with Arizona Game and Fish, developed and initiated a grass-roots plan, “Sticker A Mussel,” to raise awareness and educate boaters on how to prevent contaminating other invasive species-free bodies of water.
The “Sticker A Mussel”campaign, starting its sixth month, has been chosen one of seven proposals awarded funding by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for continuing the fight against quagga mussels. David Britton, Asst. Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinator, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said, “The program developed by the LHMA will serve to reduce the number of potentially contaminated boats from moving further into Arizona and California waters, and from crossing state and tribal boundaries. Their efforts to this end are to be commended. The LHMA is one of the first, and select-few, non-government, non-profit entities to be awarded such a grant in the four year history of this program.”
“Our mission is to educate boaters on using the proper protocol of ‘clean, drain and dry’ their boat after every use,” commented Jim Salscheider, LHMA president and CEO. “This is the only way to effectively prevent moving invasive species from one body of water to another. Our “Sticker A Mussel” campaign is a visual reminder to boaters to follow those steps whenever they load their boat back on to the trailer. Because the sticker is placed on the tongue of the trailer in plain view, it also has recognition value at California Agricultural Border Inspection Stations. ‘Stickered’ trailers let inspectors know that boaters have a basic knowledge of the quagga mussel problem and the importance of maintaining a contamination-free boat and trailer.”

The recently awarded grant allows the LHMA to aggressively pursue a number of resources to promote and fully implement the campaign. “We have a specific plan in place to put the $25,500 funding to good use,” said Salscheider. We have already ‘stickered’ over 2,200 boats/trailers thanks to our LHMA volunteers and our 55 community business partners including boat manufacturers, boat dealers, marine repair/service shops, waterfront hotels/restaurants, and launch ramps in just these few months. We’ve also printed and distributed over 25,000 invasive species informational ‘rack cards’ to boaters and have recently launched a wide reaching radio campaign that will deliver over a thousand 30 second messages by mid-September. All of this, supported by a strong Internet/social media outreach and public relations effort, is certain to have a positive impact on boaters and help curtail the spread of quagga mussels which is vital to the future well being of an outstanding recreational boating resource like Lake Havasu.”

The LHMA is actively soliciting additional volunteers to assist in the “Sticker A Mussel” campaign. If you are able to donate a few hours of your time to support this cause, please contact the LHMA, Jim Salscheider, at (928) 208-2442 or email to jims@lhmarineassn.com. “It’s the right thing to do.”

[Slacker]

That's all nice and good. I haven't seen any sticker program or anything related to mussels from the LHMA and I live in Havasu and take out of Windsor ramps 1-5 days a week year round. But will that not change anything, they can try and do whatever but it is just a matter of time when other lakes get infected with mussels, Lake Powell is a perfect example of that. You would have to be living in a cave for not knowing what you need to do to stop spreading the mussel's but a lot of boaters don't really care or are just ignorant as most are with no wake areas. The inspection station east of Needles in I-40 has been closed since June, I haven't gone that way since July and it was all closed up then and I'm sure it still is closed. Sorry just being realistic. I don't put much stock in the US Fish and Wildlife or LHMA. The best thing that LHMA ever did was the trash bags around the Lake. Sorry but to me that is 25 grand down the toilet and another example of what the US Fish and Wildlife should have done years ago instead of giving tickets to boaters for being to loud going thru Topock Gorge.

[hpboats83]

I agree Slacker, it sounds like $25,500 of "feel good" stickers will be printed with nothing real to solve the problem.

[crazyhippy]

They tried to sticker the waterski race boats the weekend of the boatshow.

"There is no fucking way that sticker is going on this boat" might have been said... it didn't

[GRADS]

Let me tell you that at Lake Tahoe they take this stuff VERY seriously!

Every boat has to go through an intense inspection process before launching that includes running 140 degree water through the engine, drive and ballast tanks if you have them.

If you say the boat is from So Cal or Arizona they break out rubber gloves and lube.

And it cost anywhere from $80-$150.

[H2oSki2Fast]

They tried to sticker the waterski race boats the weekend of the boatshow.

"There is no fucking way that sticker is going on this boat" might have been said... it didn't

Actually, they wanted the stickers to go on the trailers, but that didn't happen either.

[Ziggy]

That's all nice and good. I haven't seen any sticker program or anything related to mussels from the LHMA and I live in Havasu and take out of Windsor ramps 1-5 days a week year round. But will that not change anything, they can try and do whatever but it is just a matter of time when other lakes get infected with mussels, Lake Powell is a perfect example of that. You would have to be living in a cave for not knowing what you need to do to stop spreading the mussel's but a lot of boaters don't really care or are just ignorant as most are with no wake areas. The inspection station east of Needles in I-40 has been closed since June, I haven't gone that way since July and it was all closed up then and I'm sure it still is closed. Sorry just being realistic. I don't put much stock in the US Fish and Wildlife or LHMA. The best thing that LHMA ever did was the trash bags around the Lake. Sorry but to me that is 25 grand down the toilet and another example of what the US Fish and Wildlife should have done years ago instead of giving tickets to boaters for being to loud going thru Topock Gorge.

The Marina has signs up all around, "Don't move a Mussel".....but other than that I haven't heard or seen anything else.

[RioShock25]

They are wasting lots of money. The fight is to keep them out of the State water Project system. Its too late for the Colorado. We are getting them in our treatment plant in Yorba Linda. Here's a pic of a bunch of dead quaggas in one of our ozone contactor chambers.


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[Ziggy]

Does the water there come from the Colorado or from NorCal?
.
That's a whole lotta shells, dead or alive?

[RioShock25]

Does the water there come from the Colorado or from NorCal?
.
That's a whole lotta shells, dead or alive?

We get our water from both the Colorado and from Nor Cal. However, since quaggas haven't been found in the State Water Project yet, these hitchhikers are coming from Havasu and Lake Mathews.

They are all dead.