Asian Carp Cards Delivered to D.C.

Groups from around the Great Lakes region have spent the last several weeks delivering nearly 8,000 post cards with constituent signatures to Members of Congress asking them to stop the Asian carp.

Freshwater Future, a Petoskey-based organization, organized the development and distribution of thousands of post cards to constituents for their signature as part of a regional effort to demonstration to Congress how important stopping the Asian carp is to people around the Great Lakes region.

"Our message from people around the region couldn't be more clear: 'We cannot wait any longer. We want a permanent solution to stop the Asian carp and protect our Great Lakes way of life,'" stated Cheryl Mendoza, Associate Director for Freshwater Future.

In partnership with Freshwater Future, groups including Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, Environment Illinois, Ohio Environmental Council, Great Lakes United, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, River Network, Sierra Club and citizen advocates met with Member office’s both in-district and in Washington D.C. to deliver the post cards and request their increased involvement in efforts to stop the Asian carp.

The groups are pressing for construction of a permanent barrier to separate the two major watersheds – artificially connected a century ago to direct Chicago’s wastewater away from Lake Michigan – as the only guaranteed way to keep Asian carp and other destructive invasives from traveling between the two basins.

A recent study by four preeminent scientists concluded that: Current protection efforts, namely the electric barrier, won’t hold back Asian carp; an Asian carp invasion of the Great Lakes is imminent; the fish could thrive in the lakes and wreak havoc on fisheries; and a systematic campaign of disinformation by special interests have paralyzed efforts to find a permanent solution.

Those scientists, like many conservation groups in the region, said the only sure way to stop the movement of Asian carp and dozens of other invasive species between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes systems is to physically separate the two basins.

“The longer we wait, the more time we give the Asian carp to make our Great Lakes their new home,” stated Mendoza. “Our hope is that we don’t look back 10 years from now with a carp infestation that is choking out our native fish and threatening boaters knowing there was more we could have done to protect our Great Lakes.”