Minneapolis lake boat launches set to open
Here's another sign of spring, despite the rotten weather -- boat launches on three Minneapolis lakes will open on Thursday.
The boat launches on Calhoun, Nokomis and Harriet will have inspectors again this year to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species.
Debra Pilger of the Minneapolis park board says boats entering and leaving the lake will be inspected between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Boat launches will be locked outside of those hours.
"We are trying to protect the lakes from any new AIS and we also have a couple of aquatic invasive species in our lakes that we don't want to move to other lakes," she said.
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The Minneapolis park board is especially concerned about zebra mussels. The haven't shown up in Calhoun, Nokomis or Harriet yet. But they're prevalent in Lake Minnetonka, and officials say a lot of Minneapolis lake users also visit Minnetonka.
Last summer, inspectors stopped two sailboats with zebra mussels from launching into Lake Harriet.
"If our inspector had not been there to conduct the inspection and stop him from launching, those live zebra mussels that were in their adult stage of life and would have reproduced eggs would have gotten into Harriet and we would probably be seeing in a couple years there," she said, describing one of the episodes.
Data collected last year showed about 4,500 boat launches, mostly during the summer months, so this year inspectors will scale back their hours after Labor Day. Inspectors will also act as information ambassadors, providing guidance to other park visitors besides just boaters.
After Sept. 2, boat inspectors will be out from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. And in November, boaters will have to call to arrange for an inspector to check their boats and open launches.