(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) - Welcome to "Almanac North."

I'm Maarja Hewitt.

Tonight we take a deep dive into invasive species in Minnesota, learn how these species threaten our natural environment, and what you can do to help.

While many are familiar with the idea of invasive species, our aim is to share the scope of the issue in Minnesota, as well as the variety of species that are being combated by efforts from private groups, as well as the Department of Natural Resources.

Now, here's Dennis Anderson with a deeper look into a familiar foe.

Denny?

- And thank you very much, Maarja.

Tonight we turn our attention to a significant environmental concern in Minnesota, and that is zebra mussels, an invasive species posing serious threats to our waterways.

Now, originally from Eastern Europe and Western Russia, zebra mussels arrived in North America in the ballast water of ships, and were first discovered in Lake Erie back in 1988.

In Minnesota, they were spotted in the Duluth Harbor just a year later.

Now, since then, the Department of Natural Resources, the DNR, has documented their presence in fewer than 100 water bodies, with 213 water bodies classified as infested due to their connection to affected areas.

Zebra mussels range from 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches long.

They're easily recognized by their yellow and brown striped shells.

Unlike native mussels, they attach themselves to hard surfaces in the water, leading to numerous problems.

They can actually clog irrigation intakes and pipes.

They can reduce the performance of boat motors and create hazards for swimmers by attaching to rocks, swim rafts, and ladders.

They also pose a threat to native mussels, and they disrupt the food chain by filtering tiny food particles from the water.

Now, the spread of zebra mussels is facilitated by their ability to attach to boats, aquatic vegetation, and even the microscopic larvae, which can be carried in bait buckets and live wells.

To prevent their spread, it is crucial to clean weeds and debris from boats, to remove drain plugs, and dispose of unused bait properly before leaving any water access point.

Zebra mussels are classified as a prohibited invasive species here in Minnesota.

It's illegal to import, possess, buy, sell, transport, or introduce them into state waters.

Controlling zebra mussels remains challenging.

While we continue to battle this invasive species, public awareness and cooperation remain essential.

By taking preventive measures and supporting ongoing research, we can help protect our lakes and rivers from the threats posed by zebra mussels and other invasive species.

And now, Maarja, back to you.

- Thank you, Denny.

Now, here to speak with us from the Department of Natural Resources is Forestry Regional Specialist Casey Baysal.

Casey, welcome to "Almanac North."

- Thank you.

- So Casey, tell us about yourself and what you do for the DNR.

- Yeah, so I work out of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

I'm the regional forestry specialist working with invasive species.

So I do a lot of contracts and help landowners out, figure out what they have in their yards, try to do, help do treatments or, you know, try to find funding for some of those treatments.

'Cause it can get kind of expensive to do management of invasive species.

- Sure.

So what are some problematic invasive species, plants, trees, that you're dealing with right now?

- Yeah, so in forested areas we have the buckthorn.

There's Japanese knotweed, Siberian pea shrub.

There can be barberry honeysuckle, the non-native honeysuckles, within the forested areas.

And then on the roadside we have species like the tansies and wild parsnip and nap weed.

And so there's quite a few species out there.

- That's a good list.

What's something that people would be able to see and maybe identify that there is a lot of?

- I think tansy's a pretty noticeable one right now.

You'll see it along the roadsides.

It's starting to go into flower.

It's got a yellow flower head on it, and it kind of grows in clumps.

So you'll see it on patches of the roadside with those bright yellow flower heads on it.

You know, parsnip is another one.

It looks very similar to a few of our native species, but it's a big umbel shape and it's yellow, you know, and that one you'd wanna stay away from, because of if you do touch it and then stay in the sun, you can get a pretty severe burn on your skin from it.

- Okay, good to know.

What are the primary ways that these species are spreading?

- Yeah, so a lot of them came over, you know, from overseas.

Some were in nursery trade.

Others have been used in windbreaks and shelter belts.

And so, you know, they can spread through mowing, the seeds that that'll flow in the wind.

So there's quite a few ways that they can spread, you know, especially that mowing.

If you mow an area that has them and then go mow an area that doesn't have any of the invasive species, you're probably gonna likely spread those seeds to a new spot.

You know, and then there's a lot of, if you were cutting your brush or something like that and it was an invasive species and you take it to the brush pile, that's another mode of spread as well.

- So if someone identifies a invasive species in their backyard, what do they do next?

- They could call me.

You know, I am based out of Grand Rapids.

I can get pictures through my phone, so you could take a couple pictures, you know, close up pictures of the leaves, the flowers, and then just send them my way.

I think my contact info is on the DNR website.

There's other invasive species specialists in the Minnesota DNR, especially for the terrestrials also.

Otherwise, you know, possibly your local SWCD U of M extension.

You could also contact Minnesota Department of Ag, as they're the regulatory authority on invasive species.

- So what happens if you know you, well, I guess, what's the impact on the ecosystem from these species?

Why do we wanna stop the spread and and remove them?

- Yeah, so, you know, any time you have an invasive species on the landscape, it's taking away space for our native species.

You know, and the other thing is they tend to grow aggressively and pretty quickly.

And so if you have one of our native species in a ditch or in the forest, it's probably gonna get outcompeted by something like buckthorn or tansy, just because of their modes of spread and how quickly they can take over areas.

So that's a big problem, you know, especially if we don't keep 'em in smaller populations.

And we've already gotten past that point with a lot of species.

You know, buckthorn is slowly moving its way north.

It's a pretty big issue in the southern part of the state.

You know, Lake County is trying to get ahold of every population they see and take care of it right away.

Same with our DNR foresters in the area.

So trying to keep 'em out of an area is probably better than waiting for them to get super, super high level in the area.

- Is there anything folks at home can do to prevent, you know, the spread, to keep them from spreading, keep 'em outta their yard?

- Yeah, like, you know, if you take your dog for a walk, make sure you're brushing the dog before you leave the site, so you're potentially leaving any seeds on site as opposed to bringing them back to your yard and then potential to spread there.

Cleaning your shoes off, you know, cleaning any burrs you have on yourself.

Again, keeping invasive brush within your yard or trying to find a different way to dispose of it as opposed to spreading it across the landscape or, you know, taking it to the roadside and dumping it or something like that.

- Some actionable tips.

Casey, thank you so much for joining us today.

- Yeah.

- Next, our team at "Almanac North" had a chance to speak with UMD's Dr. Timothy Craig about invasive species.

Let's take a look.

- My name's Tim Craig.

I'm in the biology department here at University of Minnesota Duluth.

I study evolution, ecology, and animal behavior, and I do it primarily through studying the interactions of plants, the insects that feed on them, and the things that feed on the insects that feed on them, like predators and parasitic insects.

When species invade and they attack plants which aren't adapted to dealing with those invasive species, sometimes it can cause the local extinction of those species.

It can change the species composition of an area.

For example, when I was younger, all the trees, all the cities in the Midwest were full of elm trees.

And the elm bark beetle came in and introduced a fungus, which essentially wiped them out.

So we very rarely see elm trees around here.

So it can change the species composition of the both, I mean, urban areas and suburban areas, out in the forest.

Things like the emerald ash borer may essentially remove most ash trees from Minnesota.

That's gonna have a big impact, not only on removing the ash trees, but there are many other species that depend on ash trees, other insects, birds that nest in them, all kinds of things in that.

So the introduction of one insect species can potentially change the whole composition of a forest and have large ecosystem consequences.

And all kinds of things happen.

One thing I've noticed is woodpeckers feed on insects in dead trees.

And some species like the pileated woodpecker seem to be doing very well now that there are all kinds of dying trees that have insects feeding on under the bark that are found only on dead trees.

So it has, introduction of species can have wide and sometimes unanticipated consequences as to changing whole series of species interactions you might not even think about.

I wouldn't have thought initially the emerald ash borer would have such a big impact on woodpeckers, but they do.

There are other invasive insect species, one of which we've just started to detect around here, which is what used to be called the gypsy moth and now is referred to as the spongy moth, which is an invasive species, which has caused a lot of damage and deforestation further east of here, and it's gradually moving here into Minnesota.

And we have a composition of tree species where potentially we could see a lot of defoliation and even death of some trees from that.

And there are other things that we aren't necessarily that aware of.

One that we've looked at a little bit in the classes I teach is the, there's a ladybug called the Asian ladybug that you may be familiar with.

It's the thing that people often call about in the fall, but it's also called the Halloween beetle.

It tends to crawl into people's houses.

And that's not the primary problem.

The biggest problem is that that species of ladybugs is displacing in all of the native species of ladybugs, which are very important in controlling insect pests.

And for example, when we look through our insect collections, about 10 or 20 years ago, almost all the native species are disappearing and they're being displaced by the Asian lady bug species.

So the past approaches, which weren't very good were to spray or use pesticides that were very broad spectrum, would kill lots of insects.

And that hits lots of insects you don't want to decrease.

One difficult but good strategy is called biological control.

And in biological control, what you do is you go and you look at where the insect originally occurred, for example, they looked where gypsy moths were in Europe.

And you look at what insects attack and kill gypsy moths there.

And then you introduce that species to its new range and you hope that it will control it here.

But it can be a difficult strategy to use because you have to make sure that the insect that you introduce doesn't attack another insect which is beneficial.

And of course there are many beneficial insects.

Other strategies, for example, that are less problem to other insects, for example, when the spongy moth initially colonizes an area, they can try to prevent it from spreading by disrupting the mating.

So insects often release a chemical that helps mates find each other.

So what you can do to control it is you synthesize that chemical and you spray it or put it in traps that confuses the moths so they can't find each other to mate, or they go into a trap that has that pheromone where they get killed.

Usually those compounds are very specific.

If you're a spongy moth, you only produce a chemical that's gonna attract another spongy moth, so you're not likely to target another butterfly.

So that's another, those kinds of strategies are very good.

- We are now joined by DNR Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Planner, Doug Jensen.

Doug, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- Let's start with a little bit about who you are and what you do with the DNR.

- Well, I'm the Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Planner.

So I play a number of different roles in providing leadership at the regional and and state level.

But also one of my main parts of my jobs is working with all the counties and providing technical support to their local AIS prevention programs.

- So looking at invasive plants and species or invasive aquatic, invasive plants and animals, excuse me.

What are some problematic species right now that the state of Minnesota is tackling?

- Sure.

Well, there's a, there's a huge issue.

It's actually a national issue, a global issue, if you will.

And so there's a lot of different species we're dealing with here in Minnesota.

There's roughly about 30 different aquatic plants, invertebrates, fish, and then also fish diseases that we're dealing with.

Probably the one that people are most familiar with would be the zebra mussel, because of the impacts that it can cause and the harm that can cause to lakes.

But there's also newcomers like starry stonewort, which is an invasive algae, invasive plant, excuse me, that's has spread now to about 30 lakes across Minnesota.

- Okay.

And Minnesota's Land of 10,000 Lakes.

So I have to imagine you have a lot of planning and coordinating to try and stop that spread, 'cause it would be easy.

- Yeah, and there's no one entity, you know, that has jurisdiction over, an authority over aquatic invasive species here in Minnesota.

Of course the Minnesota DNR has that such authority, and we're one of the largest programs in the nation.

- So how do they impact the water ecosystem when these invasive species come in?

- Each one has their own unique impacts.

If it's a zebra mussel, for example, a zebra mussel can filter one liter of water per day.

And Lake Mille Lacs is being turned over every nine to 11 days.

So it's increasing water clarity.

It then impacts the aquatic plants and aquatic plant growth, which then is also gonna impact fisheries.

In fact, it's estimated between zebra mussels and spiny water flea, in Lake Mille Lacs, they're consuming about 92% of the food that is available for fish.

- You know, being so close to Wisconsin, how do you coordinate with the Wisconsin DNR and some of these projects, because invasive species don't know state lines, of course.

- That's right, that's right.

And Wisconsin also has a very good program nationally featuring public education aimed at prevention, watercraft inspection, and then also enforcement and regulations.

So we've worked with Wisconsin for over 30 years on a whole number of different projects, and we also coordinate activities through the Great Lakes panel on aquatic invasive species, which has representation from Minnesota to New York, Ontario, and Quebec.

- [Maarja] Oh, wow.

- So we're working together regionally in the first regional panel in the country.

- What are the main pathways that they spread?

- Sure.

Well, if we're talking from the Great Lakes perspective, ballast water has historically been the number one source for invasive species.

About 40% of all the non-native species that have been introduced in the Great Lakes have been in via ballast water.

But because the actions by the Canadian and US governments and the states as well as the industry, there have been no new aquatic invasives species introductions into Lake Superior since 2006.

- [Maarja] Wow.

- So we're banking on quite a roll here.

- What can recreational boaters, and you know, people who love to go to the lakes, people viewing at home, what can they do in their daily lives to help the spread?

- Sure, that's a great question.

And that's probably one of the other significant pathways.

We have almost 900,000 registered boaters here in the state of Minnesota.

We rank third the nation on the number of registered boats behind California and Florida.

And certainly recreational boaters, either things that are attached to the hull, things that might be in the water, those all serve as mechanisms for overland transport.

So the things that boaters can do is do the clean, drain, and dispose.

And what I mean by cleaning is meaning taking everything off that's visible off the boat motor, hull, and trailer before leaving the access, draining any water that might be on board in the live well or in the bilge, and then disposing all live bait in the trash.

Bring only as much bait as you need out on the water.

But if you are planning to reuse that bait, bring some bottled water or tap water from home, drain off the water from the bait bucket, and then replenish with the water you had from home, and then put it in a cooler in the back of your vehicle.

- Okay.

Good reminders for the next time you go out on the lake.

Looking ahead, what are some pressing challenges or threats that you see?

- Well, there's a whole number of different species that are out there that haven't come to Minnesota.

So we're keeping our eye on the horizon for those different species.

And the good news is that we haven't had too many new ones that have come into the state.

One that we are keeping an eye on is signal crayfish, which was found in Lake Winona and Alexandria, Minnesota.

There's been 10 individuals who were found there.

They're native to northeastern, or northwestern of the United States.

And so we're keeping an eye on that one because of the impacts that has caused in other waters in northern California and also over in Europe.

- All right, Doug, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

- Thanks for having me.

(soft uplifting music) - Finally tonight, let's look at the weekend ahead.

One of the events going on right now through the end of the weekend is FinnFest.

To learn more, our last guest tonight is the executive director of FinnFest, Ira Mimmu Salmela.

Welcome to the show.

- Thank you.

- Happy to have you here.

Now, you are the executive director of FinnFest.

This is a national festival in Duluth.

Can you share a little bit about your role with FinnFest?

- Yeah, so I'm the executive director, and I am helping put this together.

So from all of the programming, logistics and so on, we have a nice team of actually Duluthians and people from New York and so on that we work together to put this together.

It's really cool how it comes together.

We call it Team FinnFest.

- And last year, Duluth had the chance to host FinnFest as well.

But it's been all over the nation and we get it in Duluth again this year.

What can people expect over the festival?

- So if you think of it as a five-day festival, and today it was the first day where we kicked it off with tours and some light programming, plus a floor ball, a tournament kicked off at the deck.

Tomorrow will be more of the seminars, some films.

Every night there's gonna be dances, nightly dances, and like I said, programming, presentations, and so on.

Friday and Saturday are gonna be crazy days where there's gonna be a lot of presentations on architecture and sustainability to foreign affairs, literature, you name it.

But then there's that Tori Nordic Fair, which is the kind of the marketplace with a whole bunch of exhibitions, demonstrations, and lots of sauna.

- Oh, so it sounds like you kind of bring Scandinavia to Duluth.

- Yes, so the idea is that you don't have to travel overseas to experience the Nordic cultures.

And we really, although the name is FinnFest, we wanna welcome everyone.

Maybe your neighbor was a Finlander or maybe, you know, you are Swedish or something like that, everybody's welcome.

And we really just wanna bring to life the Nordic culture and the lifestyle.

That seems to make people happy.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And so FinnFest has been around for a few decades.

Why was FinnFest originally, you know, thought of, and how has it morphed over the decades?

- So for 41 years, this is the year 41, FinnFest has been, it's a national organization, and have traveled around the country.

It is literally answering to that need of the, you know, honoring your heritage, bringing your, you know, Finnish roots and those people who are interested in it together.

And really the cultural pieces that could go away otherwise.

And for generations after generations, and actually, at this year's fest and last year, we see more and more young people who are coming.

They might be third, fourth generation Finnish Americans who are coming to look for their roots and the things that they remember about their grandma and things like that, that are actually really appreciating this festival.

- Oh, that's cool.

Are there any notable guest speakers this year or special events?

- Yes.

So our keynote speaker is Pekka Haavisto.

He is a member of the Parliament in Finland, and he was the Foreign affairs minister last year in 2023 when Finland joined NATO.

He is really knowledgeable, obviously in that area, but he's also the Green Party leader.

And he's doing the keynote on Friday about world and global peace, how that can be possible.

So if you think of the world crises right now and the issues going on, he's talking about peace, the alternatives, you know?

And then the other thing is on Saturday he will be doing a panel about the carbon neutral future of Finland and Minnesota.

So he's talking about how Finland is gonna make it happen.

And then we're bringing a great group of experts from Minnesota saying how Minnesota will become carbon neutral.

So big conversations, but also you can choose just to go eat the Finnish salmon soup at the deck.

They put on a great menu of Finnish foods.

You can go listen to the live music.

But like I said, the programming going from foreign affairs, we actually also last year covered the Finland and NATO conversation, which was the biggest topic obviously last year.

And this year we are following that up with Finland and Russia conversation.

Kind of a touchy topic.

But again, we have a high level member of the parliament from Finland who will be speaking, his name is Jarno Limnell, and he is actually a military and cybersecurity expert.

So bringing that caliber speakers from overseas, we're really proud of that, and think that people are really gonna find it interesting.

- And digging into some very fascinating topics.

- Oh yeah.

Not the easiest topics to talk about.

- No, no.

- Yes.

- Well, Mimmu, thank you so much for joining us, and FinnFest sounds really fun.

- Yeah, thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- Well, let's see what else you might be up to this weekend.

Saturday from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Cinema is the next entry in their summer film series, "The Goonies."

Visit the Cinema and take one of the classics.

A group of young misfits called the Goonies discover an ancient map and set out an adventure to find a legendary pirate's long lost treasure.

And all weekend long at Mont du Lac is Bowfest, a combination music and archery event.

Bowfest brings both Smash Mouth and LOCASH as musical headliners, as well as six unique courses, over 60 targets, and thousands of dollars in giveaways and prizes.

Music fans and archery enthusiasts of all ages will find something for them.

Tickets and more information available online.

And of course, all weekend long is FinnFest 2024 at Nordic culture, heritage, learning, and fun.

You heard all about it tonight.

If you need any more information or to plan your FinnFest, head to finnfest.us.

Well, that is it for this week's show.

Make sure you go out and enjoy your weekend.

For everyone here at "Almanac North," I'm Maarja Hewitt.

Thank you for joining us.

Good night.

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