Invading species

Temagami Stewardship Council
Open Letter from Gaye Smith
Chairman Temagami Stewardship Council

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Since its inception, the Temagami Stewardship Council has participated in the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters Invading Species Program. As part of our partnership with OFAH, volunteers spent the afternoon on Thursday, September 13th, floating around on Lake Temagami conducting the invading species testing in designated parts of the lake. The OFAH provides a complete kit of testing materials and assumes all shipping costs. After the water samples are collected, they are sent back to the OFAH lab for analysis. The yearly results are posted on the OFAH website and also on the TSC website at www.temagamistewardship.ca

This yearly testing for invading species is a very worthwhile activity but like most studies it does nothing to stop the spread of invading species, it just tells you when the problem has arrived in your lake. In the last few years the spiny water flea and the zebra mussel veligers have been identified as being present in Lake Temagami. These invaders are brought into Temagami on the surface or in bilge water of one or more of the hundreds of boats that were in Lake Huron or Lake Ontario yesterday and are launched in Lake Temagami today.

The government of Ontario has depended on educating anglers about the problem of invading species and counting on the conscientiousness of anglers to wash their boats when transporting from the great lakes and prior to launching into a northern lake. Of the 300 to 400 boat trailers parked at the launch point on the access road of Lake Temagami on a long weekend, one wonders how many have been washed…..one perhaps, if any. The fact is that all the testing and all the public education provided to this point in time has not stopped the spread of these invaders from the great lakes into our northern lakes. We must make a serious attempt to do something more constructive and preventative.

I don’t believe that enforcement is the answer to this problem. In light of the current severe cutbacks to the MNR, the conservation officers don’t have gas to put in their trucks to do the job they are already supposed to be doing. Installing inspection stations at each boat launch to the lakes would be extremely cost prohibitive since Lake Temagami, in itself, would need 6 or 7 stations.

I believe an viable solution would be the installation of ONE boat inspection station designed much like the present truck inspection stations. The key location for this station would be on Hwy. 11, below North Bay, where every boat being trailered North would be caught for a thorough inspection, washed and disinfected before being launched into any of the northern lakes. This strategy would not only be more cost effective but would stop the spread of invading species before they take a bigger hold in our Northern fresh water lakes.

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