Citizen group fundraises to keep quagga mussels out of Bear Lake

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A new snack vendor is funding an inspection and decontamination station to keep quagga mussels out of Bear Lake.
• The new Snack Shack is being run by the nonprofit, Bear Lake Watch.
• The shack is currently open on Mondays and Fridays, but will expand to run through the week during peak season in July and August.

SAINT CHARLES, Idaho — A new snack vendor on the North Beach of Bear Lake is there to try to help protect the lake. The new Snack Shack is being run by the nonprofit Bear Lake Watch in an effort to put in and run an inspection and decontamination station on the north end of the Lake.

"What happens on one side happens on both sides," Bear Lake Watch Executive Director Brady Long said. "It's critical that Idaho has some type of aquatic invasive species decontamination inspection on the Idaho side."

Long notes that while Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources places and staffs stations outside lakes and reservoirs statewide, the state of Idaho does not yet have a similar program to protect against invasive quagga mussels.

"We want to be part of the solution," Long explained. "Bear Lake Watch didn't want to put pressure on the state of Idaho. We didn't want to come and demand more money, more laws, more rules."

Long said that with massive support from the community, the organization was able to spend $75,000 on a Hydroblaster decontamination system, much like the ones used across Utah.

"When we asked the public, there was such a huge wave of support," Long said. "We raised $100,000 for that effort, and even the owner of the company of Hydroblaster, he even donated to the cause as well."

Bear Lake Watch has received multiple letters of support for their effort to put in the inspection and decontamination station, including from the Department of the Interior and Idaho Fish & Game. With the lake already facing challenges from invasive species, like phragmites, Eurasian watermilfoil and Asian clams, Long says it's imperative that efforts are in place on both ends of Bear Lake to protect it.

"These invasive species are already a headache and a challenge to manage and try to contain and control," Long explained. "What about a bigger monster? What if zebra mussels quagga were to get into Bear Lake? Then that would domino all down through the Bear River."

Bear Lake Watch's Shake Shack is currently open on Mondays and Fridays, but will expand to run through the week during peak season in July and August.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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EnvironmentUtahNorthern UtahIdaho

Mike Anderson

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Mike Anderson often doubles as his own photographer, shooting and editing most of his stories. He came to KSL in April 2011 after working for several years at various broadcast news outlets.