ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Utah supports approximately 250 boatable water bodies, and most of the water bodies evidence limnology suitable for inhabitation by quagga (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) or zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha). Utah Division of Wildlife Resources demonstrated that programmatic planning coupled with applied management to cause changes in boater behavior likely averted initial inoculations or interrupted early establishing populations of quagga or zebra mussels. Once fully established, quagga or zebra mussel populations can be extremely dif‘cult to eradicate or control. Key to the success in Utah’s case study was gaining cooperation and participation by boaters through repetitive outreach strategies. Boaters were educated about the impacts from quagga and zebra mussels along with the process for conducting their own boat inspection and decontamination via the clean, drain, and dry approach in order to kill hitchhiking Dreissena mussels. Routine, random boat inspections and decontaminations when necessary as 140°F water applied via high and low pressure by trained natural resource management professionals served to reinforce Utah’s outreach messages to boaters. Success for Dreissena mussel management in Utah was demonstrated: nine water bodies evidenced Dreissena mussels between 2008 and 2013, but only one, Lake Powell, remains infested. Monitoring shows that Dreissena mussels are no longer present in the others, likely due to applied boater management, so the affected water bodies have been reclassi‘ed to an undetected status. Utah’s other boatable waters remain in the undetected status due in part to the same applied boater management.
