Leveraging Partnerships to Implement the Adirondack AIS Prevention Program:

A Landscape-Scaled Watercraft Inspection and Decontamination Program

International AIS Conference 2017

October 24, 2017 Eric Holmlund, PhD – Paul Smith’s College Meg Modley – Lake Champlain Basin Program

ADKs Comparatively Clean

NY – Ground Zero for Forest Pests

Prevention, then containment

The response

curve

Era 1- “Core Partners”

• AWI • APIPP • LCBP • LGA

• Lake Associations

Era 2 -- “+ The Feds”

• GLRI • USFWS • USEPA

Era 3- “+ State & Local

Muscle” • NYSDEC, LGPC

• Local Govt • Sportsmen

• Enviros

2000 2017 2014 2011 2018

Era 4- “Expanding Universe”

• Business outreach • NYS – wide

• Status of GLRI? • NYS EPF security?

Inspectors

HPHW Decon. Units

# inspectors/staff

175

0

LCBP/LGA start

Growth process

High level state commitment (normalization of resources)

Federal Funding (Influx of seed resources)

Regional AIS Action and Coordination Groups

Higher Education/ Science

Lake Associations

Our “Key” or tipping point

The promise of permanence

Initiated by parochial interests

Legitimized

Regionalized

Concept proven/funded/scaled

Annu

al $ c

ycle

/sourc

es

1-3

Yr

$

Multi-Y

r ??

2017: A Multi-Agency Effort

= AWI operated Decon = partner operated Decon = AWI inspector = partner org. inspector

Education, Outreach & Awareness Building

• Website: • Steward outreach at boat

launches • Signage - roadside • Radio Messages • Business Outreach Prg.

Outreach Efforts Billboard on Interstate

ADIRONDACK WATERSHED INSTITUTE STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM

YEAR IN REVIEW

www.adkwatershed.org

1

Graphic by Jake Sporn

Data Driven Decision Making

• Clean, organize, analyze nearly 100K inspections

• Outcomes (AIS or not) • Previous waterway visited • Look for pathways for the boat

vector • Use traffic density and

pathways to designate the next year’s steward and decon locations

Previous visits = outbound vectors

Oneida Lake

Where was your last visit? Great Sacandaga

Raquette Lake

Where was your last visit?

Previous visits = Pathways

Previous Waterways for Launching Boats # visits Previous Waterways for Launching Boats # visits Previous Waterways for Launching Boats # visits

NONE 526 Black Lake 3 DeRuyter Reservoir, DeRuyter, NY 1

Long Lake 339 Canandaigua Lake 3 Heart Lake, North Elba, NY 1

RENTAL 41 Lake Durant 3 Hinckley Reservoir 1

Raquette Lake 19 Lower Saranac Lake 3 Horseshoe Lake 1

Lake Eaton 18 Mohawk River 3 Keuka Lake 1

Lake Harris, Newcomb, NY 17 Raquette River 3 Lake Erie 1

Forked Lake 16 St. Regis River 3 Lake Kan-ac-to, Webb, NY 1

Tupper Lake 16 Upper Saranac Lake 3 Lake Lila 1

Sacandaga Lake 14 Ballston Lake 2 Lake Memphremagog, Magog, QC 1

Lake George 12 Barnum Pond 2 Lake Pleasant 1

Indian Lake 11 Cayuga Lake 2 Lake Zoar, Monroe, CT 1

UNKNOWN (boater doesn't know) 11 Eighth Lake 2 Limekiln Lake 1

DID NOT ASK 10 Fulton Chain of Lakes 2 Lower St Regis Lake 1

Fourth Lake 10 Glen Lake, Queensbury, NY 2 Mirror Lake 1

Schroon Lake 10 Lake Bonaparte 2 Moose Pond 1

Great Sacandaga Lake 9 Osgood Pond 2 Niagara River 1

Blue Mountain Lake 8 Rainbow Lake 2 Oswegatchie River 1

Oneida Lake 7 Snyder's Lake, Wynantskill, NY 2 Owasco Lake 1

Lake Champlain 6 Blue Cypress Lake, FL 1 Paradox Lake 1

Lake Ontario 6 Blue Marsh Lake, Berks County, PA 1 Piseco Lake 1

Atlantic Ocean 5 Brandreth Lake, Hamilton County, NY 1 Round Lake, Saratoga, NY 1

Cranberry Lake 5 Canandarago Lake 1 Seneca Lake 1

Hudson River 5 Caroga Lake 1 Seventh Lake 1

Little Tupper Lake 5 Carry Falls Reservoir 1 Silver Lake, Barnard, VT 1

Saranac River 5 Cazenovia Lake 1 Skaneateles Lake 1

St. Lawrence River 5 Cedar River Flow 1 somewhere in Connecticut 1

Brant Lake 4 Chateaugay Lake 1 South Pond, Long Lake, NY 1

Connecticut River 4 Chesapeake Bay, MD 1 Upper St Regis Lake 1

Lows Lake 4 Chittenden Reservoir, Chittenden, VT 1 Warner Lake, Berne, NY 1

Saratoga Lake 4 Conesus Lake 1 Wononskopomuc Lake, Salisbury, CT 1

Big Moose Lake 3 Total groups 1241

Compile Each Lake’s Data Long Lake– Lakes previously visited during 2016 season

Generate Single-Lake Vector Maps

2016

Combine with

other lakes

2016

All the other

lakes

‘17 Inspection & Decon Assets

2017 (prelim) outcomes

• 119 AWI stewards at 62 boat launches + 16 decon stations

• Performed over 81K inspections and 1,800 decontaminations

• Over 3,000 AIS interceptions so far this season, including a Hydrilla save at Upper Saranac Lake

Program/Design Strengths • Inter-agency leadership team • Field personnel hiring, training, supervision

procedures = Quality Control • Data quality = QA/QC procedures • Species confirmation procedures • Collection of key data points:

• Last waterbody visited • Spread prevention behavior

• Strategic pairing of risks with assets

Take Home Messages • Our critical success factor (big lever): Local

Government cooperation and lobbying • Complexity expands reach and impact, but

requires increased administrative support and structure

• Landscape – scope program upscaling is necessary – AIS have already done it!

Acknowledgements