Marketplace Today Blog

By Dan Egan
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Resource managers and cottage owners have a new tool in the never-ending fight to keep the state’s inland lakes from being infested by zebra mussels.

A Web site from the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for Limnology will help property owners determine how vulnerable their lakes are to an invasion.

The site displays a map of more than 12,000 lakes and identifies their susceptibility to an invasion. Not all lakes are at risk; many simply don't have the right water chemistry to sustain a zebra mussel population.

“We used information about the environment to forecast where a species can live, looking for matches between the environment and species requirements,” Jake Vander Zanden, a UW–Madison zoology professor and invasive species expert, said in a news release announcing the new Web site.

Zebra mussels have already invaded about 80 of Wisconsin’s inland lakes, primarily in southeastern Wisconsin and the Fox River Valley. While they have the potential to invade lakes all around the state, many bodies of water, particularly in the north, are not at risk.

Last year Vander Zanden told the Journal Sentinel his lab had analyzed 923 lakes in northern Wisconsin’s Vilas County and found 91 of them to be suitable habitat for zebra mussels. It was a radically different situation in southeastern Wisconsin, where his crews found that all but one of 334 lakes that were analyzed can likely sustain zebra mussels.

Letting officials and the public know which northern lakes are susceptible can help decision-makers and homeowner groups strategize to protect the lakes that need the most attention.

“That’s one reason we think it’s important to be thinking about zebra mussels in that area, because they’re not there yet. They’re in a position that they can still do something about it,” says Vander Zanden. “If you’re a manager in Vilas County and you’re worried about invasive species, this tells you which lakes you need to focus on.”

Recreational boats moving from lake to lake are considered the primary pathway for invasions.

Biologists say the best way to stop the species from spreading is to identify infested lakes and make sure boats are adequately cleaned before leaving those bodies of water.

The new map color codes bodies of water as suitable habitat, possibly suitable or unsuitable. It also identifies the lakes that are already infested.

The UW researchers are now putting together maps for additional species, including spiny water fleas, rainbow smelt and round gobies — critters that have already invaded the Great Lakes and are now only a boat launch away from colonizing more inland waters.

On the Web Invasive species: www.aissmartprevention.wisc.edu.