Clean. Drain. Dry.
We applaud all those championing heightened awareness of aquatic invaders and the harm they can do to waterways we all treasure; like many we’ve been bombarded of late by questions about any special precautions that might need be taken if one might have been on the Yellowstone in the past several weeks prior to the closure.
I reached out yesterday to Travis Horton, FWP’s Region 3 Fisheries Manager (who’s busy as hell these days as you can imagine) and he indicated standard Clean, Drain, and Dry procedures should be adequate for the T. bryosalmonae infestation of the Yellowstone.
You can refresh your memory on FWP’s AIS page here and also by reviewing the excellent cleaning tips on the Invasive Species Action Network’s site.
Public Meeting in Livingston Tonight at 6
FWP staff will be holding a public meeting covering Yellowstone fish kill issues tonight at the Park County Fairgrounds in Livingston at 6 PM.
Thankfully the Bastions of East Coast Journalism Exist to Enlighten Redneck Westerners
Back on the 22nd The Atlantic (Washington DC based) published a well-written and largely science-based article covering the Yellowstone issues (A Tiny Jellyfish Relative Just Shut Down Yellowstone River).
(The DC crowd pretty much tends to ignore Montana and the Northern Rockies unless we have a disaster of some sort that might be politically expedient; I’d venture less than 1% of The Atlantic’s staff could locate the Yellowstone River on an unmarked map of the West today.)
On behalf of the very talented and intelligent fisheries folks working in the state, one might even take umbrage at this introductory paragraph –
The press statement and all the subsequent news reports referred to the organism behind the fishes’ woes as a “microscopic parasite.” A few select outlets actually named the thing—Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae. But none of them realized how extraordinary it really is.
I have a feeling the regional scientists working the issue have a clear and precise realization of ‘how extraordinary’ the parasite is and the havoc it may induce upon a watershed.
The New York Times even chimed in yesterday online (and the story runs in print today), with our own Jess of Jess McGlothlin Media tapped to grab their images.
