GLIN==> The GLMRIS Newsletter - Volume 1, Issue 3

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 THE GREAT LAKES AND MISSISSIPPI RIVER INTERBASIN STUDY NEWSLETTER  November
2011, Volume 1, Issue 3
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--> Download this newsletter in PDF format at
http://glmris.anl.gov/documents/docs/newsletter/vol1iss3.pdf


>>LETTER FROM THE TEAM<<
What a busy and productive year it's been for the GLMRIS Team! During 2011,
we held 12 scoping meetings throughout the Great Lakes and Mississippi River
basins; released a Study Management Plan as well as several Interim Products,
including the Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) White Paper, the NEPA Scoping
Summary Report and the Baseline Assessment of Commercial Non-Cargo Navigation
in the Chicago Area Waterway System.  In late 2010, the GLMRIS Team worked
with other federal and state agencies to provide information that led to the
construction of a temporary fence at Eagle Marsh, adjacent to Fort Wayne,
Ind., specifically to protect against the transfer of adult Asian carp into
the Great Lakes.  Throughout the year, the GLMRIS Team has also been
completing a report to identify long-term solutions for preventing ANS
transfer between the basins at Eagle Marsh, as well as providing stakeholders
with numerous ways to get involved -and stay involved-with the ongoing study
efforts. 

As we move toward 2012, the GLMRIS Team looks forward to releasing more
Interim Products detailing current data collection efforts, as well as
hosting more events for stakeholders to attend and get involved.  The winter
months will be busy for the GLMRIS Team, as we prepare Interim Products
detailing ANS control technologies, document baseline information for
commercial cargo navigation and identify fisheries in the Great Lakes and
Mississippi River basins.  We will also be preparing documents that further
refine the Other Pathways information in a final risk characterization
report.

Thanks for your interest and participation in GLMRIS, and be sure to stay
tuned for all of the great things to come!


>>GLMRIS INTERIM PRODUCT MILESTONES<<
During GLMRIS, the team will compile Interim Products, many of which are
generated from the data-gathering phase. These Interim Products will continue
to be made available to the public, as they are completed. 

*Baseline Assessment of Non-Cargo Chicago Area Waterways System Traffic
This assessment was released Sept. 28, 2011 and serves as a baseline
assessment of lock traffic by commercial passenger, recreational and
governmental vessels that includes an appraisal of historical traffic through
the locks and a description of the lock operations. Cargo-related traffic
will be identified through a separate report. This effort serves as a basis
from which to compare potential impacts to waterway uses in the consideration
of ANS controls.

*National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) Scoping Summary Report
This report was released Sept. 9, 2011 and documents the methods and
procedures followed during the NEPA Scoping process, as well as summarizes
the comments received during the scoping period (Nov. 16, 2010 through March
31, 2011).

NEPA regulations include a requirement to prepare a detailed document
outlining major Federal actions that may significantly affect the quality of
the human environment.  For GLMRIS, this document is called an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS). As part of the preparation of the EIS, NEPA requires
that there be an early and open process for determining the scope of the
issues to be addressed by a study. This process is commonly known as "NEPA
scoping."

The GLMRIS Team will use the NEPA Scoping Summary Report to assess topics of
interest in order to refine the scope of the study. The potential impact of
Asian carp entering the Great Lakes ecosystem, hydrologic separation, study
timeline and the use of other studies to help inform GLMRIS were areas of
public interest.

*Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) White Paper
This white paper was released July 27, 2011 and catalogues potential
non-native species within the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins and
identifies which high-risk species will be an initial focus in GLMRIS.  The
ANS White Paper identifies species that occur in one basin or the other that
have the potential to transfer through aquatic pathways and become invasive.
The list presented in the White Paper is the first step in establishing the
current and future without project conditions for GLMRIS alternative plan
formulation purposes.  

Thirty-nine (39) species in all were categorized as potentially high risk.
Ten (10) species pose a risk for potential transfer into the Great Lakes
Basin, while 29 are deemed of significant risk for potential transfer to the
Mississippi River Basin. View the High-Risk Species Fact Sheets at:
http://glmris.anl.gov/documents/ans/index.cfm

-->Interim Reports Expected for Release Winter 2011

*ANS Control Technologies Report
This report will identify available controls that could prevent ANS transfer
through the Chicago Area Waterway System, as well as other potential aquatic
pathways. The report will provide a brief description of each control or
technology and will include citations from which additional information may
be gathered. The GLMRIS Team will use the information in this document to
develop and evaluate alternatives for GLMRIS. 

*Commercial Cargo Baseline Assessment
The Chicago Area Waterway (CAWS) Cargo report provides a detailed view of the
commodity traffic as it relates to its movement into CAWS, through CAWS and
within CAWS.  The second part of the report details CAWS' navigation
operations, constraints on navigation within CAWS, vessel traffic, lock
utilization and performance.  Data contained in this study is taken from the
Waterborne Commerce Statistics, as collected and maintained by USACE
Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center.  Future alternative analysis will
utilize data from this report to assist in the determination of plans
presented in GLMRIS.

*Commercial Fisheries Report
As a part of the GLMRIS Navigation and Economics Team, the Fisheries
Economics Team will generate a baseline assessment of the commercial
fisheries in the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River basins. This
valuation will utilize commercial fishing harvest data provided by states'
Department of Natural Resources to analyze commercial fishing harvests and
their associated dockside values. The final product will be a valuation of
the fisheries in the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River basins. This
will set up a baseline, which the Fisheries Economics Team will later compare
to scenarios where ANS transfer would potentially occur. However, the
baseline assessment of commercial fisheries will focus solely on the current
value of the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River fisheries.

-->Expected for Release Spring 2012

*Aquatic Nuisance Species Controls Report for Wabash-Maumee Basins
Connection, Fort Wayne, Indiana
This report is the highest priority for GLMRIS Other Pathways or Focus Area
II. This effort will identify technologies to prevent ANS from transferring
between the Wabash and the Maumee river basins during flooding. The goal is
to keep all ANS from transferring between the Great Lakes and Mississippi
River basins. While the prevention focus has typically been on the CAWS, this
report, developed by USACE Louisville District, examines a second potential
pathway near the Fort Wayne, Indiana vicinity.

*Other Aquatic Pathways Risk Characterization Report
To qualitatively evaluate the risk of ANS inter-basin transfer at aquatic
pathways outside of the CAWS, a "Preliminary Risk Characterization" was
completed in 2010, which took a cursory look at the entire length of the
approximately 1,500 mile long divide between the Great Lakes and the
Mississippi River basins.  

USACE collaborated with the U.S. Geological Society, U.S. Fish and Wildlife,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the natural resource
agencies in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania
and New York to identify 18 potential locations where it appeared that
inter-basin flow could exist during storm events that occur at a frequency
greater than the 1 percent annual return frequency storm.  One of these 18
locations is the Wabash-Maumee (aka Eagle Marsh) site near Fort Wayne,
Indiana, which was determined in 2010 to be the highest priority GLMRIS
location outside the CAWS.  

The current effort is intended to build upon these preliminary results
through the collaborative efforts and evaluation of existing available data
with stakeholders and partner agencies to better characterize the risk of ANS
transfer at these locations. The results of this effort will be utilized to
help prioritize the funding of future GLMRIS actions at these other aquatic
pathways and the results will be incorporated into the overall study.


>>ANS PAPER AND THE INTERACTIVE ANS WEB SITE<<
The GLMIRS Natural Resource Team recently released The Non-Native Species of
Concern and Dispersal Risk for the Great Lakes and Mississippi River
Interbasin Study [Paper/Report], better known as the ANS White Paper. Within
this report, the GLMRIS Team identified 39 High-Risk Species that may
transfer via the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS - Focus Area I).
	
The bighead and silver carp are two of ten identified ANS that are of
potential risk to the Great Lakes Basin. Twenty-nine ANS have been
highlighted as potentially significant risk to the Mississippi River Basin.

Three steps were taken to narrow down the list to 39 High-Risk Species.
*Identify All Potential Alien Species
*Identify Potential Impacts & Transport Mechanisms
*Identify High-Risk Invasive Species Pertinent to GLMRIS
	
This approach provided a consistent and objective process to identifying ANS
that are considered invasive, highly mobile and within close proximity to
inter-basin dispersal pathways. This approach is keystone for GLMRIS since
all subsequent analyses and decisions are based upon, or correlated with, the
High-Risk Species.

Once identified, the team put together factsheets on the 39 High-Risk
Species. Detailed information such as description, ecology, habitat,
distribution and status of each species, as well as photos, can be easily
found on the ANS Portal of the Documents tab of the GLMRIS website:
http://glmris.anl.gov/documents/ans

The identification of the species in the ANS White Paper will aid the GLMRIS
Team in identifying available prevention and control technologies for further
analysis. The Other Pathways Team (Focus Area II) will be using the ANS White
Paper to develop site-specific High-Risk Species lists for all other
potential aquatic pathways. 

The GLMRIS Team would like to thanks those who took the time to review the
ANS White Paper and comment; because of your input, several revisions were
made.


>>GLMRIS TEAMS PARTNER UP<<
Stakeholder engagement is a key to the success of GLMRIS, and teams are
taking advantage of strategic partnerships to ensure timely, quality
products. 

At an Asian Carp Summit, attended by GLMRIS representatives and hosted by the
Michigan Lodging & Tourism Association, the Michigan United Conservation
Clubs, Michigan Boating Industries Association and Michigan Snowsports
Industries Association in September, Dr. Bill Taylor, Michigan State
University distinguished professor of Global Fisheries Systems in the Center
for Systems Integration and Sustainability, emphasized that "the power of the
people will be the driving force" in protecting water as an economic resource
and a driver for ecological protection. He stressed that we should all be
working together towards a solution instead of fighting each other.

The GLMRIS Navigation and Economic Team is collaborating with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and their Sea Grant program to
research potential impacts to waterway uses in the consideration of
alternative ANS controls of the Charter Fishing industry. In addition,
Cornell University is conducting the recreation economic analysis.

Members of the GLMRIS Environmental Quality Team, Technology Team, Hydrology
& Hydraulics Team and other GLMRIS team members met with representatives from
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. EPA in August to
discuss regulatory issues associated with water quality impacts from
potential hydrologic separation alternatives.  

Moreover, modeling of water quality in the CAWS has commenced, and
researchers at Marquette University are working to extend the boundaries of
the existing model, update the model to incorporate more recent inflow data,
and add the capability of modeling additional water-quality parameters.

Late October, the GLMRIS CAWS Team hosted a kick-off meeting to give agencies
a perspective on GLMRIS and direction for making technical comments on the
ANS Control Technologies Report.  Participants included representatives from
the U.S. EPA, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois EPA and Metropolitan Water
Reclamation District. The agency review represents the beginning of the final
step toward finalizing this report, which is anticipated for public release
winter 2011. 

These are only highlights of the GLMRIS Team's stakeholder involvement, and
the team will continue to encourage participation and input through the
duration of the study.


>>GLMRIS TEAM SPOTLIGHT<<
Q & A's with Kelly Baerwaldt, USACE Fish Biologist and member of the GLMRIS
Natural Resources Team 

*What is your background? 
I have served as USACE Asian Carp Monitoring Team Lead since 2007, working
closely with the Chicago District to develop and implement monitoring actions
such as eDNA, telemetry, DIDSON and traditional monitoring for the Asian Carp
Regional Coordinating Committee Monitoring and Rapid Response Work Group. I
have eight years of experience working with the Asian carp invasion of the
Illinois River. I'm also a contributing invasive species expert for the
Electric Dispersal Barriers Efficacy Study. I have extensive experience with
Asian carp biology and behavior and have authored several publications
regarding Asian carp life history, behavior, reproduction, habitat use and
movement.

I have a Bachelor of Science in Zoology with a concentration in Ecology,
Evolution, & Organismal Biology from Michigan State University and a Master
of Science in Zoology with a concentration in Fisheries Management and Large
River Ecology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

*How do you work with the other GLMRIS teams?
Our team leader, Frank Veraldi, shares the Natural Resources Team Interim
Products with the other GLMRIS teams for their consideration in developing
their own products.  Most recently, the team developed and released the ANS
White Paper. 

*What has been the biggest challenge for this team?
In my opinion, a challenge has been to get a handle on the enormity of the
tasks - to identify and characterize the risk of all aquatic organisms that
posed a threat from invading the Great Lakes or Mississippi River basins.
This wasn't limited to fish; we investigated plants, crustaceans, bacteria,
algae, mollusks, viruses.... This is a huge list!  We spent many hours
conducting literature reviews, compiling fact sheets and synthesizing all
this information into one condensed list of highly-invasive species

*What are the biggest rewards in working for this team?
The biggest reward is the satisfaction of knowing you are working towards
something that will benefit the nation for years to come.  Having the
opportunity to be able to stop ANS before they spread is truly a unique
ecological opportunity, and to be involved on a team that strives to reach
that objective is very exciting.

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Please join the conversation and discuss GLMRIS topics with USACE and other
stakeholders at http://twitter.com/GLMRIS and http://facebook.com/GLMRIS.