It took an army of over 70 volunteers from a coalition of agencies stretching from the mountain headwaters to the desert crossovers, but the Colorado River has a clearer diagnosis now, and it's not looking good. Zebra mussels, the troublesome invaders no one in the West wanted to see, have hitched their unwelcome ride into our river systems. According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the efforts of these individuals from nine different agencies led to the discoveries that have shifted the fight against aquatic hitchhikers into high gear.
Teams sliced the rivers into manageable sections, peering closely at rocks and other convenient hitching posts that zebra mussels love to cling onto. Their meticulous searches covered a breadth of 200 miles across the Colorado, Gunnison, Eagle, and Roaring Fork rivers. In a stark finding, CPW confirmed the presence of a single zebra mussel in the Colorado River near Rifle, a discovery that subsequently flagged the area from the confluence with the Eagle River all the way to Utah as infested territory.
And it's not just zebras that are muscling in. The CPW also flagged up an unwanted arrival in the Roaring Fork River: New Zealand mudsnails. Previously spotted in other major waterways, it's the Roaring Fork's turn to play host to these unwelcome guests. But it's a shared responsibility, with Robert Walters, CPW’s Invasive Species Program Manager, stressing the importance of partnerships in these efforts. "We could not have pulled off such a massive effort without our partners. These partnerships are instrumental in the continued protection of Colorado’s aquatic resources and infrastructure from invasive mussels," Walters said in a statement shared on Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
