The Thornton Creek Watershed Oversight Council is warning area residents to stay out of Thornton Creek due to the spread of the invasive New Zealand Mud Snail.
The above video from KING-5 News reports that the snail, which earlier took over Olympia’s Capitol Lake, was found Wednesday in Thornton Creek, near its entry into Lake Washington.
The accompanying article by Gary Chittim, forwarded to us by Cheryl Klinker with the Thornton Creek Watershed Oversight Council, says:
The fast-growing snails can smother out native snails and other creatures in water bodies and upset the ecological balance. They grew so rapidly in Capitol Lake that efforts to kill them seemed to work at first, but only time found they stormed back in huge numbers.
State and local agencies are working on a plan to try to control them in Thornton Creek. For now, they are asking the public to help reduce the spread by staying out of the creek.
