WASHINGTON-U.S. Rep Rick Nolan in a letter Friday urged President Donald Trump to direct the Army Corps of Engineers to immediately engage with local and state governments, as well as fisheries and other interested groups, to implement a long-term solution for keeping Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes. Nolan also urged that in the meantime, Trump should reverse the decision to suspend the vital ongoing study at Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Joliet, Ill., a news release said.
"This suspension jeopardizes numerous industries in Minnesota and Wisconsin, including our nation's $7 billion sport fishing market, $16 billion boating industry, and $18 billion hunting and wildlife observation market," Nolan said in the letter. "There is a consensus that the threat is real, and unfortunately efforts to solve the problem are now mired in bureaucratic inaction. Further delay only increases the likelihood that this threat becomes a full scale, irreversible inundation of this highly destructive invasive species."
Nolan has long been a leader in invasive species prevention, the news release said. He led the effort to close the Lock and Dam at St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis as a step toward containing Asian Carp and preventing them from traveling north to infest and wreak havoc on Northern Minnesota's sport fishing industry and the hundreds of millions of dollars in good paying jobs and economic benefits it supports, the release said.
"The Trump Administration's decision to halt the study undermines this progress," Nolan said.
Joining Nolan on the letter are U.S. representatives Mike Bishop, Bill Huizenga, Marcy Kaptur, Fred Upton, Paul Mitchell, Mike Quigley, Jack Bergman, David Joyce, Justin Amash, Louise Slaughter and Debbie Dingell.
