Destructive Mussels Invade Riverway

TAYLORS FALLS, Minn. — Zebra mussels, an exotic species that can wreak ecological havoc in waterways, have worked their way north into the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway despite strenuous efforts to control them.

Federal and state ecologists had hoped to keep the zebra mussels, native to Europe and Asia, south of a dam separating the upper and lower portion of the St. Croix. But the National Park Service discovered 40 to 50 of the adult mussels in a monitoring trap two miles north of Taylors Falls on July 12.