Everyone who enjoys Minnesota’s lakes and rivers has a role to play in preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS).
It’s not hard to understand why aquatic invaders like zebra mussels, spiny water flea, and curlyleaf pondweed are harmful to our waters.
If you live on or recreate on an infested waterbody, you may notice disruptions to food webs that support fish and other wildlife, dense mats of invasive plants along the shoreline, a loss of native plant diversity, or harmful algae growth fueled by the conditions invasives create.
While concern is high, engagement has been a challenge to addressing the spread. Only 10% of lakeshore residents surveyed in 2024 agreed that everyone is working together to control AIS.
At the same time, Minnesota’s AIS prevention efforts are currently facing a significant funding reduction. The 2025 Minnesota Legislature voted to enact a 50% reduction in County AIS Prevention Aid beginning with aid payable in 2027. The program currently provides $10 million annually to counties to support local AIS prevention efforts, including watercraft inspections and decontamination, public education, monitoring, early detection, and grants to local organizations and partners.
Counties are preparing by scaling back inspection and education programs in their budgets. That means fewer opportunities to reach boaters and lake users with the information they have traditionally received at public accesses.
Broadening understanding of the need to protect Minnesota’s lakes and rivers from the impacts of AIS can help ensure policymakers hear from their communities and understand the importance of sustained investment in AIS prevention before funding cuts take effect next year.
That’s why this summer, 14 local partners collaborated with Minnesota Lakes & Rivers and Leighton Media on a three-month digital campaign to show that preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species is possible—it just takes all of us doing our part.
From May through August, the campaign ran across streaming networks and through click-through ads, reaching more than 750,000 boaters, anglers, and lake enthusiasts with clear, practical reminders about how they can help stop the spread of AIS. Engagement was strong, too, with more than 70% of viewers completing the videos and nearly 600 people clicking through to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ AIS prevention webpages.
Aquatic Invaders Campaign
A special thank you to all of the sponsors who made this campaign possible. Together, these partners not only helped broaden awareness of aquatic invasive species—they also demonstrated a shared commitment to educating Minnesotans who live around and recreate on our lakes and rivers.
By monitoring and reporting AIS, using free cleaning and decontamination tools, and properly disposing of bait, pets, and plants, we can all help protect Minnesota’s waters for generations to come. This campaign showed that when organizations and communities work together, we can reach more people with a shared message and make AIS prevention easier to understand—and easier to act on.
To extend the reach of the campaign and give communities an easy, ready-to-use resource, all of the videos are free to download and share!
