BRAINERD — The Crow Wing County Land Services Department is requesting public comments on the proposed 2025 Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Plan.
The County Board will review the proposed 2025 plan at a regularly scheduled meeting in December.
According to a news release, Crow Wing County was allocated $472,193 by the state Legislature to assist in the prevention and spread of AIS within county lakes and rivers in 2025.
The AIS Prevention Plan proposes to accomplish this through several activities, including:
Watercraft inspections: Crow Wing County optimized an online dashboard developed by the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service called AIS Explorer. This online dashboard uses existing infestation information, water connectivity risk modeling, and over 1.6 million boater movement survey results to forecast the introduction risk of four priority AIS (zebra mussels, Eurasian watermilfoil, starry stonewort and spiny waterflea) at individual lakes throughout the county.
Crow Wing County also used watercraft inspection per-hour data to determine allocated hours at multiple landings throughout the county. In total, 13,632 watercraft inspection hours are proposed to be allocated at 43 landings in 2025.
Decontamination units: The county plans to operate two mobile decontamination stations located at multiple public landings including Edward, Lower Hay, North Long in Merrifield, Lower Cullen, Pelican in Halverson Bay, and Upper South Long that will be open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Watercraft users are encouraged to call the Crow Wing County Decon Hotline at 218-824-1055 or text “CWCDECON” to 1-833-258-7509 for more details during the summer season. Watercraft decontaminations consist of a hot water rinse to kill zebra mussels and if needed, a high-pressure spray to remove AIS from boats, motors, trailers and personal gear.
- Grant program funding: AIS dollars will be administered as available grant funding for the prevention, treatment and early detection of aquatic invasive species to lakes across the county. Funding may be available to lakes for the following activities: Eurasian watermilfoil treatments, starry stonewort treatments, starry stonewort sampling, zebra mussel veliger sampling, spiny water flea sampling and other opportunities to be vetted based on policy standards.
- Education and awareness: The county will allocate funding toward education materials for public schools, youth groups, resorts and civic organizations in the county.
The plan can be viewed on the county website at crowwing.gov/AIS. Written comments on the plan will be accepted until Saturday, Dec. 8, and may be submitted to Crow Wing County at landservices@crowwing.gov or mailed to 322 Laurel St., Suite 15, Brainerd, MN 56401, attention AIS Plan Comments.