Huckleberries Online

Boaters To Pay $10 To Fight Mussels

Posted by DFO

March 16, 2009 1:04 p.m. • 13 comments

The House has voted 63-5 in favor of HB 213, the bill to combat quagga and zebra mussels by imposing a fee on all boats launched in Idaho, motorized and non-motorized alike. The cost for the annual sticker would be $10 for boats registered in Idaho, $20 for those registered elsewhere, and $5 for non-motorized boats, which aren’t registered. The only exclusion would be for inflatables less than 10 feet long/Betsy Russell, SR. More here.

13 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

sibulsky on March 16 at 2:11 p.m.
this one gripes me…I’ve already sent off a note to Sen Gedde asking for a NO vote when it hits the Senate.

http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/howtocontactlegislators.htm

It’s a pain for kayakers…

Looking into the text, there’s no justification…(do Washington, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon, BC, waters have these devlish critters??)
Sisyphus on March 16 at 2:28 p.m.
I stroooongly disagree that there’s no justification Steve. They only just appeared on this side of the divide in 2007 in Lake Mead. They now cover most of the reservoir. They’re already expending millions of dollars to safeguard Hoover Dam. And now they’re just miles from our southern border. I’m thinking they might already be in the Columbia system which will be a disaster.

Now tagging kayakers and floaters on this seems unfair. I suspect that’s why Jaquet voted no and why the outfitters are agin it. I can’t blame you for that other than the Rep from Sandpoint successfully argued that the purpose of the bill is primarily to educate. But these mussels are a horribly invasive species that a water poor state like Idaho just can’t afford.

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/taxgroup/mollusks/zebramussel/
sibulsky on March 16 at 2:44 p.m.
got me on this one…I should have said “no justification given in the legislation supporting documents” that I could find on the web…and why the emergency handling??

I’m also gonna send a not to Rep Clark thanking him for the “no” vote
Me on March 16 at 3:19 p.m.
Sis - why not tag kayakers and floaters. They use the same water? They can also carry these around from place to place can they not?
hmoffsuite on March 16 at 3:29 p.m.
This is a good thing. Sis educated me on this some when it first came up for discussion. I will gladly pay the fee for each boat I own.
cantyoureadthesigns on March 16 at 4:32 p.m.
So if a canoe or kayak were to “become infected” from waters that have this foul beast, how would the owner even know?

I suppose I won’t mind paying the $5 for the canoe my friend and I own, and usually put into Idaho waters for a few day trips, and maybe a couple of mutiple day overnight trips, but I’d like to know what to do to prevent the spread, and what the money is going to be spent on.
Me on March 16 at 4:49 p.m.
I imagine it will be used toward education and information to start. How to recognize them, importance of washing your boats, especially if you use them elsewhere, so you don’t bring the mussels here. To me, smaller boats are more at risk as they are generally easier to transport from water to water - increasing the risk of brining outside critters to our waters.

Rinsing stations are another option, though I don’t know if they are part of this. I know there is now a rinsing station at Hauser Lake.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.