Crews use new tool to help fight nutria in California’s Delta
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SACRAMENTO COUNTY, California (KCRA) — It may be a small island in the center of California’s Delta, but there is a massive ongoing effort at the center of the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Sherman Island is one of our northernmost and newer sites where we detected nutria,” said environmental program manager Valerie Cook.
About a year and a half ago, crews first found nutria on the 16,000-acre island.
“It’s critical for us that we are able to employ all the tools in the toolbox that help us work most efficiently and can help us get detections most effectively,” Cook said.
Nutria are rodents native to South America, but they are causing a headache for crews in California.
“They are one of the most destructive and invasive species in the world,” Cook said.
The animals eat essentially everything in their path and can destroy aquatic vegetation and wetlands.
“Since we first got detections here, we’ve taken a total of 53 animals,” Cook said.
Crews are now getting help from outside the state. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy supplied an $11 million grant to bring in detection dogs from the East Coast. The dogs are experts at finding nutria scat, which helps find the best area for DFW crews to set traps.
Congressman Josh Harder has backed bills authorizing federal funds in the fight.
“These nutria cost places like Louisiana hundreds of millions of dollars every year in infrastructure losses,” Harder said. “That’s going to happen to California if we don’t get this eradicated.”
So far, the state has captured 5,500 animals since 2017, but what makes this so difficult is that just when crews believe they’ve cleared an area, a detection in another pops up.
“The concern is where animals have moved to from here,” Cook said.
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