Spring - Gull Chain of Lakes Association

P R O F E S S O R P R O P O S E S
I N VA S I V E S P E C I E S R E S E A R C H C E N T E R AT U O F M
Source: Doug Smith, StarTribune, January 6, 2012
Beating back invasive species with boat
inspections, dams or bubble barriers only
buys time at best, a University of
Minnesota professor told a legislative
panel.
Instead, he said, let’s outthink ‘em. That
was fisheries researcher and carp expert
Peter Sorensen’s message to the Senate
Environment and Natural Resources
Committee when he recommended that
a world-class invasive species research
center be developed at the U to study
not only how to keep leaping carp,
clinging zebra mussels and other weird
critters out of the state but also how to
get rid of those already here.
“Every species has a weakness,’’ he said.
“Nothing is perfect. We need to find
weaknesses and target them.’’
Invasive species are destroying the state’s
environment and outdoor heritage, he said.
“This is a war, not a battle. You can
expect a continued stream of these
things.’’
Under his proposal, the research center
would be housed at the university’s
College of Food, Agricultural and
Natural Resources Sciences. The idea
would be to do research in Minnesota to
solve Minnesota’s problems. With a
director, three researchers, three research
associates and graduate students, he
estimated it would cost about $1.3
million a year, plus an additional
$750,000 in start-up costs.
Sorensen suggested the money could
come from state lottery or Legacy
Amendment proceeds or other state
sources and possibly also from private
industry.
‘A silver bullet’
“I think it’s a good idea,’’ said Sen. Bill
Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, chairman of
the committee. “We have to do
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something. Obviously cost is an issue,
but we can’t just keep dumping money
into fish barriers. We’re going to have to
come up with a silver bullet.’’
Increasing boat-license fees and out-ofstate
fishing licenses could be other
revenue sources, Ingebrigtsen said. If
anything, he said, the proposal may not
be ambitious enough.
Dick Osgood, an aquatic ecologist and
executive director of the Lake
Minnetonka Association, likes the idea
too, but he said a $1.3 million annual
budget for invasive species research
“seems puny. The need is certainly larger
than that.’’
Sorensen has for years conducted
research on controlling or ridding lakes
of common carp, an early invasive
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