In the battle between the government and Asian carp, a block of Minnesota legislators have introduced bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to keep carp from spreading into the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Reps. Keith Ellison, Erik Paulsen, and Tim Walz have spearheaded the campaign with the support of Gov. Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the bill “could close the lock and dam at St. Anthony Falls if the invasive fish are found north of Hastings.
The Upper Mississippi Conservation and River Protection (CARP) Act would also let Minnesota and other Midwestern states tap into a $50 million federal fund for controlling the spread of Asian carp. The bill would require the federal government to include all rivers north of Illinois in its national carp strategy, instead of limiting it to the Great Lakes.”
This is just the latest step in the Asian carp battle, and companies that use shipping barges do not want the locks and dams closed. Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court said that there wasn’t enough evidence to close dams in Illinois. But stopping the northern spread of Asian carp is a problem that is not going away anytime soon.
Via: Sportsmen Vote