By Alanna Keating, Director of Outreach at BoatUS Foundation
Editor’s Note: This article is an opinion piece submitted to The Log by Alanna Keating, director of outreach at the BoatUS Foundation. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Log or its publisher.
California’s lakes and rivers aren’t just scenery. They’re the reason a summer afternoon means jumping off a dock into a lake, the reason a hike ends at a swimming hole, the reason a Tahoe morning includes trout breaking the surface at dawn. That richness depends on something most people never think about, and it’s more fragile than most realize.
A tiny, fast-spreading mussel is proving it. You don’t need to own a boat for this to matter to you, but boaters are the ones who can do something about it.
Every boater knows the ritual after a day of boating: launch, fish, haul out, hose down, head home. Fewer know what might be riding along below deck.
Golden mussels are that hitchhiker, and they don’t stay in the water. They attach to pipes, water intakes and hydroelectric equipment, clogging the systems that move water and power across California. They strip lakes of the plankton native fish depend on, and encrust hulls and engines badly enough to cause real damage.
Golden mussels first arrived in North America in October 2024, discovered in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and O’Neill Forebay in Merced County. Within two years they’d spread to San Luis Reservoir and infested much of the San Francisco estuary, prompting new rules across Santa Clara County. As of June 2026, every boat launching at a county reservoir needs an inspection, and out-of-county boats face a 30-day quarantine before they can hit the water. Once golden mussels are established, there’s no way to remove them. The only real defense is keeping the mussels out in the first place.
California’s response has been a growing network of mandatory inspection and decontamination programs. At Folsom Lake, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation gave California State Parks a choice: close the lake, or stand up a prevention program. State Parks chose the program. That’s the trade happening statewide, at waterbodies run by agencies with the authority to shut boating down entirely. Every inspection station is doing double duty: protecting the water and boaters’ access to it.
But inspection programs, even good ones, can’t be everywhere. At the busiest lakes, there are simply too many boats and too many people to catch them all. That’s the case for why boater habits can’t be outsourced.
Golden mussels ride in bilge water, live wells, ballast tanks and wet gear, anywhere water sits still long enough to become a ride.
Clean, Drain and Dry is where boaters do their part: Clean by stripping visible mud, plants and animals off boat, trailer and gear, and rinsing anything that touched the water, ideally with hot or high-pressure water. Drain the bilge, live wells, transom wells, and anything else holding water before leaving the ramp. Dry for at least five days before launching in a new waterway.
That last part matters more than it sounds like it should. Hand-launched kayaks, canoes and paddleboards are exempt from Folsom Lake’s inspection program. At Tahoe, paddlers face no inspection requirement either, though a voluntary program, Tahoe Keepers, certifies paddlers on the program, Clean, Drain, Dry. That’s not a loophole. It’s a reminder that for a large share of boaters, no one is checking. For a paddler, Clean, Drain and Dry isn’t a backup plan. It’s the whole plan.
Experienced boaters and traveling anglers carry the most risk here, not out of carelessness, but out of range: more waterways, more trailers, more chances for mussels to hitch a ride. That also makes them best positioned to move the needle, if they make Clean, Drain and Dry as automatic as checking a hitch before towing.
Lake Tahoe’s watercraft inspection program has run since 2008, inspecting more than 107,000 vessels with no new detections of invasive species in that time. That’s proof of what happens when boater habits and inspection hold up their end at once. Golden mussels, more tolerant of different water conditions, are testing that model in real time.
Boaters are the front line here, not because the programs have failed, but because no program can watch every ramp, every day, every boat that isn’t required to stop.
No single checkpoint stops a golden mussel. It takes boaters, inspectors and programs, all checking together. Support the programs that keep your local ramp open instead of closed. And do your part: clean, drain and dry, every trip, no exceptions. The programs can’t do this alone. Neither can you.
Alanna Keating is the director of outreach at BoatUS Foundation and has led national efforts for more than 20 years to prevent the spread of invasive species.
CDFW Awards $2.7 Million for Boating Access, Golden Mussel Response
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Oct. 7 that it has awarded $2.7 million to six projects aimed at improving recreational boating access and strengthening California’s response to invasive golden mussels.
Of the funding, $704,000 will support CDFW’s Invasive Golden Mussel Program, including additional staffing for monitoring, prevention and containment efforts. Other grants will support boat ramp improvements, ADA-accessible facilities and water access projects throughout the state.
The six awards include $315,000 for the Xaa-wan’-k’wvt Village and Resort Boat Ramp Revitalization; $540,000 for the Owens River Water Trail; $456,000 for Sly Park boat launch upgrades; $536,000 for the Woodson Boat Ramp project; $225,000 for improvements at Alviso Marina County Park; and $704,000 for golden mussel prevention and response.
CDFW also announced approximately $3 million in additional Boating Access Grant Program funding for fiscal year 2027-28. Proposals are due by 4:00 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2026. An online public workshop explaining eligible projects, requirements and the grant process will be held Oct. 21 at 10:00 a.m.
Why it matters to boaters: The funding comes as California works to maintain and improve public boating access while preventing golden mussels from spreading to additional waterways.
