Asian silver carp leap out of the water when disturbed by the sound of boat motors. (Great Lakes Fishery Commission photo)

“We’re winning the war on Asian carp,” Davis said Wednesday during a White House Great Lakes Summit, which was held in conjunction with Great Lakes Days in Washington, D.C.

Government crews are “beating back” the advance of Asian carp in the Chicago Waterway System, the network of manmade canals that form an artificial link between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan, Davis said.

His claim was met with a stunned silence from the group of scientists and conservation leaders (including several from National Wildlife Federation) who were invited to participate in the Great Lakes Summit.

The reason: Researchers have repeatedly found traces of Asian carp DNA in Chicago-area waters with direct connections to Lake Michigan. Those findings suggest Asian carp have breached a flawed electric fish barrier in the Chicago Waterway System and reached the southern fringe of Lake Michigan.

Faster action needed on separating Great Lakes, Mississippi River basins

The Obama Administration has spent more than $100 million over the past two years to fight Asian carp and plans to spent another $50 million this year. That level of support is commendable.

Asian carp — which eat like hogs, breed like mosquitoes and leap out of the water when disturbed by the sound of boat motors — could decimate the $7 billion Great Lakes fishery and pose potentially lethal hazards to boaters in the region.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently moving at a snail’s pace as it studies how best to prevent Asian carp in the Mississippi River system from invading the Great Lakes. The Corps plans to study the issue for at least three more years before recommending solutions.

Experts have said that separating Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River is the only sure way to prevent Asian carp and other harmful invasive species from moving between the two basins.

The Great Lakes Commission produced a report in January that offered three options for breaking the artificial connection between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin. Read more here.

The looming threat

Currently, there are no reproducing populations of Asian carp in the Great Lakes. But individual Asian carp have previously been found in Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Chicago-area waters connected to Lake Michigan.

Given the mounting evidence of Asian carp lurking in southern Lake Michigan, it’s premature for government officials to claim they are winning the war against this menacing species of fish.

Worse, it’s tempting fate.

Obama Administration Hits the Accelerator for Responsible Offshore Wind Development

February 2 – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the agency responsible for permitting offshore wind energy, has hit the accelerator in the pursuit of this massive, domestic clean energy source.

In releasing the Final Environmental Assessment for commercial wind leasing and site assessment activities on the Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf, BOEM has effectively cut at least two years off the permitting process for offshore wind off the coasts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia. Once an auction process is completed, it is expected that numerous leases will be issued in 2012, allowing critical data to be collected for the development of construction and operations plans for offshore wind projects in these areas.

Tribes Prepare for Homecoming of Wild Bison from Yellowstone

January 31 – People on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeast Montana are preparing a big welcome-home ceremony for a fellow Plains native whose absence for more than a century has left voids in the ecosystem and cultures it helped shape.

Nearly 70 wild bison from Yellowstone National Park, part of the country’s last, free-ranging herd, will be released onto the reservation, home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. The release, expected some time in March, will mark the return of the last genetically pure bison to the plains and the reunion of animals and people once seen as inseparable.

Great Lakes–Mississippi River Separation is Possible, Practical and Preventive

January 31 – A much-anticipated study says separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins to prevent the spread of Asian carp and other invasive species is not only possible, but a natural step toward much-needed action to improve Chicago’s water infrastructure.

Great Lakes environmental groups reacting to the study, released today by the Great Lakes Commission and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, commended the authors’ factual analysis concluding that separation is possible and that it must include essential upgrades to sewage, flood control and waterborne transportation while preventing the transfer of invasive species.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• Associated Press: Colorado pols say stable oil, gas rules needed
• Reuters: Plans to block carp will re-reverse Chicago River
• E&E News: Sweeping energy package reaches House floor
• Bloomberg Businessnews: U.S. Plans to Auction Leases for Offshore Wind Farms in 2012 

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

The reason: The Great Lakes Commission on Tuesday released its long-awaited study of how to separate Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System and the Mississippi River basin. (Go here for more details)

The Chicago Waterway System, built in the late 1800s, is a network of canals that created an unnatural link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin; it is also the pipeline through which Asian carp and other invasive species move between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins.

The study by the Great Lakes Commission and Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative — which cost $2 million and was completed in just 14 months — provided three options for separating Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin.  Most importantly, the study showed that separating the two basins could be achieved without causing flooding in Chicago or harming the regional economy.

The Great Lakes Commission study provided three options for separating Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin.

Keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes will take a Herculean effort by many government agencies. But it is clearly a war worth fighting. Allowing Asian carp to invade the Great Lakes would cost far more than preventing this ecological disaster.

Scientists have concluded that separating the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin is the only permanent solution to the invasive species crisis that is wreaking havoc on both of these massive ecosystems.

It’s important to note that the Great Lakes Commission produced its study in 14 months. The U.S. Army Corps Engineer’s study of how best to keep Asian carp in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers from invading Lake Michigan won’t be completed until late 2015, at the earliest. The timeline for the Army Corps study is simply unacceptable.

It took the United States four years to win World War II and a decade to put a man on the moon. At its current pace, the Army Corps will take at least eight years — from the time Congress authorized the Asian carp study — to propose solutions; implementing a solution will take several more years.

Asian carp could be spreading throughout the Great Lakes by the time the Army Corps proposes a permanent solution.

The Chicago Waterway System created an unnatural link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin.

Much of the information in this timeline was culled from a series of articles written by Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Egan’s outstanding work brought the Asian carp crisis to the nation’s attention and he continues to break news about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers questionable handling of this looming ecological disaster.

ASIAN CARP TIMELINE

1963: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service imports grass carp from Malaysia to a federal research facility in Arkansas.

1966: First believed escape of Asian carp into U.S. waters, in Arkansas.

1970: State of Arkansas begins stocking grass carp in weed-choked waters throughout the state.

1973: An Arkansas fish farmer who ordered the first commercial import of grass carp from Taiwan unintentionally receives the nation’s first shipment of bighead, silver and black carp.

1974: The Arkansas Fish and Game Commission agrees to take the bighead, silver and black carp from the fish farmer who mistakenly received the fish from Taiwan. The state begins breeding the fish and reports it stocked more than 380,000 grass carp in Arkansas waters.

1979: Arkansas Game and Fish, with a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, begins using silver and bighead carp in sewage treatment experiments.

1980: The first report of silver carp swimming in the wild.

Early 1990s: Flooding allows silver and bighead carp in Arkansas fish farms to escape into the Mississippi River.

2002: Electric fish barrier is installed in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, about 25 miles from where the Chicago River connects with Lake Michigan. The barrier was originally built to prevent round gobies in Lake Michigan from migrating into the Mississippi River basin via the Chicago canal system. Gobies breached the barrier before it was completed, so government officials opted to use it to stop the northerly migration of Asian carp.

Late 2002: Biologists find Asian carp 21 miles downstream of the experimental fish barrier, roughly 45 miles from the Lake Michigan shoreline in Chicago.

2003: After a common carp is tracked swimming through the electric fish barrier, operators increase the voltage. The barrier then fails for 25 hours, but government officials doubt that any Asian carp passed through it during the power outage.

2007: Congress directs the Army Corps of Engineers to find ways to halt the movement of Asian carp and other invasive species between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins. Three years passes before the Army Corps begins the study.

November 2008: A study commissioned by the Alliance for the Great Lakes concludes that hydrologic separation of Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System and Mississippi River basin is technically feasible.

November 2009: The Army Corps of Engineers discloses that 32 positive samples of Asian carp DNA were found beyond the electric fish barrier; some were found within nine miles of Lake Michigan. In response to those findings, National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups call for permanent separation of Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin.

January 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects Michigan’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the closure of locks in the Chicago Waterway System to prevent Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan. Hours later, the Corps of Engineers announces it has found Asian carp DNA in waters connected to Lake Michigan.

June 2010: Federal officials rule out closing locks in the Chicago Waterway System to prevent Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan. That same month, one live bighead carp was found in Lake Calumet, which is several miles south of Lake Michigan but directly connected to it.

February 2010: President Obama pledges $78 million to prevent Asian carp in the Mississippi River and Chicago Waterway System from invading the Great Lakes.

April 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a request to permanently separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River to prevent the movement of Asian carp and other harmful aquatic invasive species between the two basins. The attorneys general of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and New York filed the case.

July 2010: Asian carp are found in Indiana’s Wabash River, a few miles from where the Wabash often floods and flows into the Maumee River, a major tributary of Lake Erie.

December 2010: The Corps of Engineers launches its Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study, known as GLMRIS. The agency announces that the study of how to keep Asian carp and other invasive species from moving between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins will be completed in 2015. Conservation groups and some members of Congress call on the Army Corps to complete the study within 18 months, but the agency refuses to alter its timeline.

March 2011: The Corps of Engineers acknowledges that the electric barrier in the Chicago Waterway system doesn’t repel all sizes of Asian carp.

June 2011: A group of prominent scientists, after concluding that an Asian carp invasion of the Great Lakes is imminent, calls for the hydrologic separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

July 2011: For the third time in 2011, the Corps of Engineers finds Asian carp DNA in Lake Calumet, which is directly connected to Lake Michigan.

December 2011: A Corps of Engineers study reveals that the volume of cargo hauled on the Chicago Waterway System decreased by nearly 50 percent between 1994 and 2009. The study discredits the claim that separating the Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System — to halt the movement of Asian carp and other invasive species between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins — will devastate Chicago’s economy. Go here for more study details.

January 2012: The U.S. Geological Survey concludes that three of Ohio’s largest rivers — the Maumee, Sandusky and Grand — provide suitable habitat for Asian carp, which could allow the fish to establish a reproducing population in western Lake Erie.

January 2012: The study by the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative provides three options for creating a permanent hydrologic barrier between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin. Building the barriers would cost between $3 billion and $9 billion and take at least a decade to complete, according to the study.

Asian carp were imported to Arkansas fish farms in the 1960s; the fish have since spread throughout the Mississippi River basin. The menacing invaders, which hog fish food and leap out of the water when disturbed by the sound of boat motors, are on the verge of invading Lake Erie and Lake Michigan.

A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that Asian carp could thrive in Ohio’s Maumee, Sandusky, and Grand rivers, which could allow the fish to establish reproducing populations in Western Lake Erie. Such a development would be devastating for the most bountiful of all the Great Lakes fisheries.

Michigan’s U.S. Senators, Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, called for immediate, stronger action to keep Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes.

“Asian carp represent a critical threat to our boating, fishing and tourism industries, and ultimately our Michigan way of life,” Stabenow said in a press release. “This report further shows how devastating the carp’s entry into the Great Lakes would be. We need action now to protect our natural resources.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently studying how best to keep Asian carp and other invasive species in the Mississippi River basin from invading the Great Lakes. The problem is that the study won’t be completed until late 2015, at the earliest.

Stabenow recently introduced the Stop Asian Carp Act of 2011 in an attempt to speed up the Corps of Engineers study. Her bill, which is stalled in a Congressional committee, would require the Corps to complete its Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study within 18 months.

National Wildlife Federation is leading efforts to keep Asian carp from colonizing the Great Lakes. Go here to learn more about what we are doing to combat the invasive fish.

The disturbing results of the USGS study were the most recent reason for the Corps of Engineers to hasten its study of how best to separate the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

A Corps of Engineers study released in December found that the volume of cargo hauled on the Chicago Waterway System decreased by nearly 50 percent between 1994 and 2009. That study destroyed claims that separating the Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System — to keep Asian carp in the manmade canals from invading the Great Lakes — would devastate Chicago’s economy. Go here for more study details.

Later this month, the Great Lakes Commission will release a much-anticipated study of potential options for separating Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System. The Chicago-area canals  provide an artificial link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin.

The rationale for acting quickly to separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin grows stronger with every passing day. Sadly, most members of Congress and the head honchos in the Corps of Engineers don’t view this brewing ecological disaster with the same sense of urgency that is shared by the millions of people who rely on the Great Lakes for recreation and their livelihoods.

Perhaps a blow to the head from a flying Asian carp would change the minds of those in Congress and the Corps of Engineers who believe that we have plenty of time to keep Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes. We don’t.

One year, perhaps two.

How about eight years?

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is studying how best to break the artificial connections between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins that could allow Asian carp to invade the  lakes, won’t complete its study until 2015.

Corps officials have said another four years to complete its Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study, known as GLMRIS, constitutes an “aggressive” schedule. What’s rarely noted is that Congress authorized the Corps to conduct the GLMRIS study in 2007.

In other words, the Corps will complete the GLMRIS study eight years after Congress authorized it as part of an expanded effort to keep Asian carp from invading Lake Michigan via the Chicago Waterway System. It will likely take s several more years after the GLMRIS study is complete for the Corps to implement a solution.

It’s not a stretch to say that it could be 2020 before the Corps takes action to create a hydrological barrier between Lake Michigan and the Chicago Waterway System, the manmade aquatic pipeline that links the Great Lakes to  the Mississippi River system.

Yet, Corps officials are traveling around the region telling people that the agency’s timetable for completing the GLMRIS study is “quite aggressive.”

Please, don’t insult our intelligence.

A similar,  privately funded study commissioned by the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative will take one year to figure out how best to create a hydrological barrier between Lake Michigan and the Chicago Waterway System. And the Great Lakes Commission’s study will cost just $2 million.

The Corps will spend $15 million on the Chicago portion of the GLMRIS study; the entire study will cost $25 million.

Let’s break this down: The Chicago portion of the Corps’ GLMRIS study will cost seven times more than a similar, privately funded study and take four times longer to complete.

Something is seriously wrong with this picture.

If you’re concerned about Asian carp invading the Great Lakes, now is the time to demand that the Corps speed up its study. Here’s how. People across the region are demanding that the Corps move faster to prevent an Asian carp invasion. Go here to hear what they are saying.

We need as many people as possible to tell the Corps to pick up the pace and at least complete the Chicago portion of the GLMRIS study by mid-2012.