Invasive species carried on canoes?

[Steve in Idaho]

I go through inspection stations quite often between Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Canoes must not be a serious concern, because they never do more than a cursory examination. At a busy station on the Idaho/Montana border, I asked if they had ever found a contaminated canoe. Their answer? "Never".

That said, I try to make sure mine is clean. Gotta wipe mine down today, as I've just been in the Snake below the "formerly" contaminated Shoshone Falls stretch, and headed to eastern Idaho. That "bathtub ring" might get some attention - at least I would hope so.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Oregon does a good job with keeping boats clean. You have to buy a sticker for running rivers but only costs $7.

Oregon has a permit, but it's not a sticker. Permit goes with the paddler - not the boat. Thus, I can buy one permit per year and take a different canoe every time I paddle in Oregon. It's a sensible policy.

Idaho OTOH requires a $7 sticker on every single canoe. Unless I park some boats for the year (which rarely happens, because I have a family of paddlers, and of course I have different solo canoes for different waters) I pay more than six times each year what a power boat owner pays for invasive species permits - no matter how many people it holds or how long it's on the water.

In Idaho, the stickers are actually a money grab, having unsuccessfully floated a proposal to require licensing with fees - that was pushed by the power boat crowd, ostensibly to "pay our share" for boat launching facilities (that we don't use). Having failed at that, the invasive sticker was a sort of revenge the following legislative session. It was the same powerboat crowd that then whined because the fee for paddlecraft was originally $5 while for motors it was $10. They lobbied to make it "more fair" and got it raised a couple years later to $7 (wishing for $10).

I can afford this, so I shouldn't complain. But it has a negative effect on young families with kids who would like to have an active and low impact lifestyle. Hugely counterproductive in the Big Picture IMO.

/Rant off.

 

[ErktheRed]

Michigan is strong on the transfer of invasive species, at least my area is. Most hiking trails have signs and boot scrubbers. For boats, kayaks, canoes and anything else water related, we have some water cleaning stations to hose your stuff down. The spread of zebra & quagga muscles, and mud snails along with didymo and some other plants or sludge is strongly recommended to clean off before you leave the put in. It does happen, but I’d say there’s a higher chance of transplanting AIS when you’re fishing while wading. Anchor lines. Bumping your trailer against the docks.

I have seen mud snails and other mollusk types on my footwear as I was exiting the water. So I started to bring a small pump sprayer with clean water in it for every time I leave any lake or river and just hose everything that was in the water off. Takes an extra 5 min and doesn’t bother me a bit. In fact it has become routine

 

[Gamma1214]

I'm curious to hear what you learn from Raka regarding safe temperature for their epoxy.
I thought West System said that 140° was the temperature at which potential damage could occur, I could be wrong. I need to do some research on that.

I broke out their response in this thread. If you'd care to check with West Systems (which I figure is the other major player in the world of strippers), please post their response in the new thread. Thanks in advance.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I have seen mud snails and other mollusk types on my footwear as I was exiting the water. So I started to bring a small pump sprayer with clean water in it for every time I leave any lake or river and just hose everything that was in the water off. Takes an extra 5 min and doesn’t bother me a bit. In fact it has become routine

Good idea!

 

[Tsuga8]

NYS does have strict rules about mandatory inspection of boats going from one watershed to another. Mainly primarily directed to motorboat craft. Baitwells and trailers tend to collect bits of aquatic vegetation, and it only takes a tiny fragment of some to spread to an entirely new region of lakes.

The regs in NYS differ by waterbody. As mentioned, I assume because water-based recreation is such a major part of the economy, there are a lot of invasive check and clean stations in and around the Adirondacks. However I've never actually been required to stop at one with my canoe.

For the reservoirs in the Catskills operated by NYC for NYC's drinking water, they are extremely serious. Steam disinfection required, boat can't leave that body of water or must be re-steamed when it returns, from what I understand. However just a few miles away in Hudson Valley, there are essentially no checks of watercraft getting on and off water bodies. The Hudson River is a mecca of invasives, between the pleasure boats, and the ocean-going tankers.

I pretty much always get everything visible out of and off my boat whenever I switch water bodies or drainages. I would think risk is pretty low with canoes and paddle boards, kayak seems slightly more risky to me because of bilgewater and things like skegs. Whitewater flotation bags might provide a similar dark, wet crevice. I always use the power setting on my hose to wash out the skeg and cable area on my wife's kayak, which does seem to collect a lot of organic matter in particular. There are so many invasives, and not all are in every body of water, even around here. There are plenty of places around here that are not paddleable from either water chestnut or milfoil. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!