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Dive team hits the water to look for zebra mussels

Chad Meenach (in water, left), Nate Welker, and Grace Tillotson (in boat) of the U.S. Forest Service Eastern Region Dive Team discuss their findings at one of the abutments under the Route 62 bridge over the Allegheny River in Irvine.

So far, there is no evidence that there are invasive zebra mussels in the Allegheny River in Warren County.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, members of the U.S. Forest Service’s Eastern Region Dive Team, based in the Allegheny National Forest, looked around in the waters of the Allegheny on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Team members Nate Welker, biological science technician, Grade Tillotson, biological science technician, and Chad Meenach, civil engineering technician, were on and in the water, checking bridge abutments.

Zebra mussels attach to hard surfaces, and the eddies behind abutments capture shells of dead mussels.

“We have an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to monitor for zebra mussels and other invasive species,” Welker said. “The only way to monitor for them is to get down to where it’s always wet.”

The team members were following the river downstream. By Wednesday afternoon, they had cleared the Route 62 bridge abutments and were heading to Tidioute, Tionesta, and, if they had time, West Hickory.

The crew found no zebra mussels, living nor dead, but they have been known to be in Conewango Creek for 10 years. “I have never seen even a shell in the Allegheny,” Welker said.

The team’s role was not to try to keep out the invasive mussels, nor to remove them if they do show up.

“If we did find them, we would collect specimens,” Welker said.

Once the mussels are noticed in a waterway, they are generally there in numbers and to stay, he said.

However, agencies would take new steps if zebra mussels are confirmed.

For now, there are surveys for all boats being put in at Forest Service launches. Officials look for vegetation and ask where the boats have been.

Any larval mussels that attached to a boat will be dead “if a boat has been out of the water for five days and it’s completely dried out,” Welker said. However, vegetation stuck to a boat, live wells and water sloshing in the bottom can all keep mussel larvae alive.

With zebra mussels living in the Conewango, it’s only a matter of time.

“If we did find, them, we would immediately consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission,” Welker said.

The ANF would then be in a position to warn boaters not to put their boats in other waters without taking the proper precautions.

The team isn’t surveying for general river health, but they are bringing up some interesting information.

A section of the river near Mead Island that used to be about 40 feet deep is now only12, Welker said.

The divers are seeing biological signs that the river is in good health.

“We’ve seen a lot of nice walleye,” he said.

“We’ve seen lots of native mussels,” Tillotson said.

“We saw a hellbender yesterday, a big one,” Meenach said.

The members of the team working in the river Wednesday were all ANF personnel. However, “we’re a regional asset,” Welker said. The team works with other forests, puts on training events, and is generally available at need.

He said the divers have to put in about two years of training. “The stuff we normally do can be pretty hazardous.”

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