Native mussel nixed for endangered list

Aug 15, 2019 | 3:45 PM

Let the rototilling begin.

The federal government has decided not to put the little Rocky Mountain Ridged Mussel (RMRM) on the endangered species list and will undertake further study instead.

The small mussel lives in Okanagan waters and rototilling to keep down invasive milfoil weed had been stopped in some areas to protect it.

The Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) called Ottawa’s decision “a reprieve” and renewed its call for permission to continue rototilling milfoil weeds at public beaches and boating areas.

“We are very pleased with this decision. It allows more flexibility for us to manage invasive milfoil, keep the beaches clean, and protect water quality” said Anna Warwick Sears, the OBWB’s executive director. “Milfoil degrades the environment for all species, as well as the public’s access to the lake.”

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The water has now turned to the province for renewal of the permit to operate in historical treatment areas.

“We understand that this is within the discretion of the B.C. minister of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development,” Warwick Sears said.

North Okanagan Regional District Area B Director Bob Fleming is also hopeful rototilling can restart.

“It was going to have a very negative effect on that, obviously, if they were excluding (rototilling) from all the main beaches up and down the Okanagan Lake stem, including (Vernon’s) Kin Beach and the surrounding area,” Fleming said.

At issue was a proposed listing of the native mussel under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) which would have increased restrictions on the water board’s milfoil control program.

Last fall, in an effort to protect the mussel, the province ruled that the board was not allowed to rototill within 100 metres of any live RMRM or shell fragment.

Provincial restrictions on the rototilling operation had become stricter over the last several years, intended to extend blanket protection for the native mussel along Okanagan lakeshores, according to the OBWB.

However, the board pointed to a 2015 provincial study that found healthy populations in the Okanagan River channel, although this was not considered in the proposal to list the species.

In April, the board put its concerns in a letter to the provincial and federal governments, asking for further study.

That wish has now been granted.

A recommendation on whether to reclassify the species will be made at a future date, said a statement from federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

by Kate Bouey

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