(peaceful music)
- [Megan] I think there's a strong emotional connection
to lakes by Minnesotans
because it's really a big part of our identity
and we all want to protect that for future generations.
- So much of Minnesota's culture
and recreation is based around the water
and enjoying our lakes and rivers.
So aquatic invasive species and other threats
to those habitats really affect people personally.
I'm Dan Larkin.
- And I'm Megan Weber and we're protecting Minnesota's
life at the lake.
(water splashing)
(upbeat music)
There's over 13 million surface acres of water in Minnesota.
- [Dan] That's a lot of water to cover.
- [Megan] And a real limited number
of paid professionals to do aquatic invasive species work.
The AIS Detectors program was started by
the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center
in partnership with the University of Minnesota extension.
We work to develop a training program for our volunteers
and then have worked with Minnesota DNR
to help review that training.
- [Dan] Got some Utricularia here.
- [Megan] Oh yeah.
- Minnesota's lakes, rivers and streams are at risk
from a variety of aquatic invasive species,
including invasive fish,
invasive plants and invasive invertebrates.
Aquatic invasive species are a major issue,
and we're developing programs like AIS Detectors
to increase capacity of everyday Minnesotans
to get involved in responding to this challenge.
Basically give them the training and education to be
eyes on the water and increasing our capacity
for early detection.
(boat motor)
(soft music)
- We are on the shores of Turtle Lake
in north Itasca County.
We were drawn to the AIS Detector program
because we thought it would be a good way to get involved
in doing things to help protect our lake
and spend more time together.
What we do is we talk together about
which parts of the lake shore we wanna do a survey on
and we will go to that section of the shoreline
and then we'll go back there about a month later
and at that time we're looking for a change.
And one of our goals was to educate and reach out to a lot
of the people around us to help keep those species
from spreading to these pristine waters.
- The way we're implementing a prevention program,
it's primarily focused on the local community.
We meet people who once they hear what we're doing say,
"Oh, we wanna join you."
So this work is definitely making a difference.
- That's another way that the AIS Detectors program
is really important is it provides people with local experts
to talk about aquatic invasive species issues.
- The AIS Detectors program has had
a really good response so far.
We've completed two years of training
and we have over 200 people who have passed the course
and are now contributing volunteer hours.
- The way we look at this is, this is our lake,
and this is our legacy.
(playful music)
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