Outagamie County Plays Host to Aquatic Invasive Species Snapshot Day

   Prohibited Snail Finding in Black Otter Lake Highlights Event

Faucet Snails

On August 20th, the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance joined dozens of partners for the annual Aquatic Invasive Species Snapshot Day. Held for it’s ninth year, Snapshot Day brings together water-lovers across the state to search for and identify plants and animals that harm local waterways. Findings from the event help local watershed coordinators like Fox-Wolf track the spread of invasive species, develop management plans, and watch for emerging problems.

In 2022, Snapshot Day was hosted locally in Outagamie County by Chris Acy, Fox-Wolf’s Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator. Joined by an amazing volunteer Jami, multiple boat launches and Wolf river access points for invasive species. At several sites, Jami and Chris found several populations of purple loosestrife. The biggest find of the day was a population of invasive Faucet Snails in Black Otter Lake. Chris and Jami documented the population as well established in the lake. The population was verified by Amanda Smith, Chris Acy and Maureen Ferry and a specimen will be submitted to the state zoological museum as the official record. Faucet snails have been previously found in the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, the Wolf River system and Ucil Lake. Next steps include response monitoring and outreach. There is no known effective population control for faucet snails in natural water bodies at this time.

As for the findings of purple loosestrife, these populations were added to the list of future sites for the purple loosestrife biological control program.

A big thank you to all volunteers acorss Wisconsin and Minnesota and to the sponsor of the event, Culver’s! Always fantastic to end the day with a free scoop of Culver’s ice cream! We hope you will join us for AIS Snapshot Day in 2023!

Check out the Keepers of the Fox Program at https://fwwa.org/watershed-recovery/lower-fox-recovery/