State Fisheries Division creating invasive species bureau

HELENA, Montana (AP) ― Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is creating a new bureau to manage the prevention, detection and control of invasive mussels.

The Aquatic Invasive Species Bureau will be housed in FWP’s Fisheries Division. The agency is searching for a bureau supervisor and hopes to have the bureau operating by March.

Tests indicated the presence of the larvae of invasive mussels in Tiber Reservoir last fall, while suspect test results were received from Canyon Ferry Reservoir, the Missouri River below Toston Dam and the Milk River.

The new bureau will double the collection of water samples to more than 1,500 at more than 200 bodies of water.

Other efforts will include additional mandatory watercraft inspection stations and setting up watercraft decontamination stations at Tiber and Canyon Ferry reservoirs.

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