How wildlife officials tracked the source of zebra mussels in the Colorado River

State officials may have solved the puzzle of how zebra mussels got into the Colorado River.

On July 3, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials discovered a large number of adult zebra mussels in a privately owned body of water in western Eagle County. Madeline Baker, an invasive species specialist with CPW, told members of the Colorado Basin Roundtable on July 28 that the agency believes this private lake is an upstream source of the mussels that have contaminated the Colorado River, the Government Highline Canal, Highline Lake and Mack Mesa Lake .

“We do believe this to be the primary source, but it could now have created other secondary sources downstream with locations that hold water,” Baker said. “There is a lot of speculation of could these veligers survive the journey from Eagl