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Project RED Volunteers Help Identify Invasive Species in Rivers

Project RED - Riverine Early Detectors – teaches volunteers to monitor river corridors by canoe, kayak, or on foot for 15 early detection invasive species. What invasive species forms thick mats in shallow areas of lakes and rivers that can interfere with swimming and boating? During free trainings, volunteers learn the facts about invasive species, how to identify them, choose their river location and monitoring schedule, and are provided online data management tools available through www.citsci.org. These tools help volunteers map and report their findings. “In Wisconsin, we have been incredibly effective at engaging volunteers in helping to protect our lakes from invasive species, such as Eurasian water-milfoil. It is time we do the same along our rivers and streams. Not only are our flowing waters impacted too, they also serve as dispersal corridors spreading invasives between lakes. We should all be concerned about invasives in our rivers.”Laura MacFarland, River Alliance of Wisconsin.

Invasive species can have far reaching effects on our state’s rivers and streams as we have witnessed elsewhere in the United States. In western states, the New Zealand mudsnail has impacted fisheries by outcompeting native stoneflies and mayflies, an important source of food for fish. In eastern states, Japanese knotweed has replaced native riparian vegetation to the detriment of the hydrology and ecology of the stream and it inhabitants. This plant invades valuable wetland habitat and lines the banks of creeks and rivers where it often forms an impenetrable wall of stems, crowding out native vegetation and leaving banks vulnerable to erosion when it dies in winter. Wisconsin’s rivers are vulnerable to invasion of both of these species.

New Zealand mudsnails have been found in the St. Louis River on the Minnesota and Wisconsin border, and Japanese knotweed has been found throughout the state in uplands. Eurasian water milfoil, the plants that form thick mats in water bodies, has been identified in 39 counties across Wisconsin. Project RED provides a unique opportunity to educate fishermen and paddlers to help detect these invasions early to enable us to contain them or eradicate them, protecting our natural resources and their recreational values.

The project is a collaboration between the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the National Institute for Invasive Species Science, and the River Alliance of Wisconsin. Once the location of invasive species is identified, the River Alliance of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin DNR can provide information on funding and technical resources available to assist with eradication or containment.

 Project RED provides:

• Easy, fun protocols to identify 15 species of concern.
• A great opportunity to engage new members/volunteers.
• Education for local landowners about invasive species.
• GPS units from statewide technology libraries for volunteers.
• Online data management tools.
• Species verification by professionals.
• Eradication and containment technical support.

The 15 Early Detection Invasive Species

Project RED volunteers will be on the search for macrophytes, mussels, mudsnails and more. 

Purple loosestrife ( DNR Fact Sheet)

Japanese knotweed (DNR Fact Sheet)

Japanese hops ( DNR Fact Sheet)

Common reed

Flowering rush ( DNR Fact Sheet)

Hydrilla ( DNR Fact Sheet)

Curly-leaf pondweed ( DNR Fact Sheet)

Eurasian water milfoil ( DNR Fact Sheet)

Brazilian waterweed ( DNR Fact Sheet)

Didymo ( DNR Fact Sheet)

Zebra mussel ( DNR Fact Sheet)

Guagga mussel ( DNR Fact Sheet )

New Zealand mudsnail ( DNR Fact Sheet )

Chinese mystery snail ( USGS Fact Sheet )

Banded mystery snail ( USGS Fact Sheet)