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DNR TO REWRITE REGULATIONS ON ZEBRA MUSSEL REMOVAL
WPR News - DNR to rewrite regulations on zebra mussel removal
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Friday June 01, 2012
by Patty Murray
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Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources is gearing up to re-write rules about removing zebra mussel shells from shorelines.
Zebra mussels are widely disliked, as they crowd out native species. Imagine huge piles of them washing up on your lakefront property.
That's why the DNR is ready to make it quicker and easier for property owners to get permits to clean up what Martye Griffin describes as "snow drifts" of shells. Griffin is the statewide Water Policy Coordinator for the DNR.
Right now he says property owners have to pay $500 for an individual permit to rid themselves of the shells beneath the 'ordinary high water mark' "Anything below the ordinary high water mark is publicly owned and a permit will be needed to remove any of that material just to protect the resource. So on those particular lakes a lot of shells get washed up way above the ordinary high water mark. So the options are pretty simple you can use any means necessary to get those off of your property."
Beginning August 1, the agency will begin rewriting regulations on how to remove shells below that ordinary high water mark. A general permit will still be needed but Griffin says it will be cheaper and more readily available, much the same as how zebra mussels are handled on the Great Lakes: "So we did create a general permit for the Great Lakes. But we just don't have one for inland lakes."
Griffin expects to have the new streamlined regulations in place before next spring.
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