Folsom Lake reopens for boats that clear quarantine

Folsom Lake is open again for vessels that have undergone a 30-day quarantine; it was exactly one month ago the golden mussel prevention program kicked off at Folsom Lake and Lake Clementine in an effort to protect area waters from the invasive and destructive species. Folsom Lake Superintendent Mike Howard said considerable work went into the process, from the hiring and training of workers to aid with the program to the inspection of about 5,500 boats in the past month. "This is day one of reopening the lake and we're all happy to be out here doing that," said Howard. "Really, this is the next phase; this is the phase we expect to be in indefinitely at this point. So getting people back on the water, even though there's not a lot of people out here today, it feels really good for us." On Wednesday, May 14, the first boats were cleared for the water at the Granite Bay boat ramp (stage 4); Howard said for the first week of the program, they did about 500 boat inspections per day; so, as each day progresses, another 500 boats will become eligible to enter the lake. All motorized vessels that hope to launch must have an intact red Folsom Lake State Recreation Area quarantine seal placed for at least 30 days. Cleared boats will also have a small green tamper evident seal installed by park employees (which actually looks like a small Lego) with a small cable wrapped around part of the boat frame; this seal indicates they can return to the lake. State Parks officials also had physical samples of golden mussels on hand in the boat ramp area. It was surprising to see how small they are, some not much bigger than a grain of rice. Michael Rodriguez, an environmental scientist with the State's Division of Boating and Waterways, said educating the public about these invasive species will hopefully help prevent their spread. "We found that showing the public what the mussels look like gives them an idea of what we look for," said Rodriguez. "It lets them know that it's not something that's super obvious … they're really small and can be missed and educating the public on what it is they should be keeping an eye out for." Last week, State Parks officials announced a small infestation of golden mussels was found on a boat at Beals Point. Howard said the challenging part about searching for these mussels is when they are in the early development stage before their shells form, they're known as "veligers" and are practically invisible. "Mostly, golden mussels are transported from one body of water to the next in the veliger state, and they're microscopic; you can't even see them. How many of those microscopic veligers did we prevent from coming into the lake? We will never know," said Howard. "But you have to believe if we found one boat with physical mussels on it, that there would be quite a few others that had those veligers." There were just a few boats that came to launch on the first day of the lake reopening, but park officials expect a steady stream of boaters over the next few weeks as thousands become eligible to enter. The big day on the horizon is, of course, Memorial Day, and park officials expect to be at capacity. The lake is nearly full, which means 600 parking spots are still under water. The Granite Bay boat ramp area lot can handle a max of 396 boats and trailers. Howard said the process inbound into the lake is fast: They timed themselves getting the first few boats through in about a minute and six seconds; he said the real slowdown on Memorial Day won't be the golden mussel, but likely lack of parking.