The Western Governors' Association Biosecurity and Invasive Species Initiative Workshop is underway at MontBleu Resort Casino Spa in Stateline. The two-day event brings experts from Nevada and the western region together, where they can share their ideas on how to manage invasive species and prevent more from spreading here.
Amy Berry is the CEO of the Tahoe Fund. She says more than 50 organizations already work to manage aquatic invasive species in Lake Tahoe. One of the biggest fears is that the Quagga Mussel will latch onto boats in one lake, and transfer to Lake Tahoe.
"There's 10 years now of those boat inspections that everybody has to go through, and knock on wood, that's kept those invasive species or the Quagga Mussel out of the lake," Berry said.
Divers already put bottom barriers in marinas and other areas near the shore, hoping to kill invasive aquatic plants. These types of practices can be shared at the workshop. Nevada's officials can learn from other states, too.
"They may be doing things in Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Colorado, California that we're not doing," Gov. Brian Sandoval said.
Invasive species affect much more than Lake Tahoe. Beetles and moths can damage the region's forests, and cheat grass contributes to massive wildland fires. More than one million acres have burned in Nevada this year. Sandoval says more federal money for fire prevention could go a long way.
"A big piece of that is working on removing invasive species and when there is a wildfire that you plant the seeds of native grasses instead o fallowing this cheat grass to come in because it makes a bad problem worse," Sandoval said.
The Nature Conservancy says invasive species cost more than $120 billion to manage, each year, affecting about 100 million acres. Sandoval says that has a negative impact on tourism, agriculture and wildlife habitat. Preventing the spread of these species could keep the west's forest healthy and safer from wildfire.
"We aren't going to get ahead of getting those out of here but they can change fire regimes, they change the way that our forests are structured, they change our rangeland and our watershed areas," Kacey KC, State Forester and Fire Warden for the Nevada Division of Forestry said.
KC says cheat grass is one of the biggest threats and one of the hardest ones to manage because they can over-run native plants.
"They just out-compete them," KC said. "When the fire burns hot enough, we don't have the native vegetation seeds that live through those fires and cheat grass is very competitive."
The people on-hand say invasive species are not just state issues but regional problems. They say that is why the WGA's initiative is so important.
"Invasive species, they don't know borders, they don't know states, they don't know politics," Berry said. "They just invade."
Sandoval says he hopes Nevada can learn some valuable methods while teaching agencies from other states some of its management practices.
"That's exactly the purpose of that is to present their best practices and we'll learn something," Sandoval said. "There's no doubt in my mind and we'll take that imitation as the greatest form of flattery and use it to best protect our lands."
