The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Department) is requesting Bids for a five-year contract to administer the Adirondack Region Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Spread Prevention Program.

Invasive species are nonnative species that can cause harm to the environment, human health, and the economy of a region and can arrive via many pathways including intentional introduction, cargo transport, and shipping ballast. Once established, AIS such as zebra mussels and Eurasian water milfoil can spread rapidly through connecting waterways or by “hitchhiking” on the propellers, trailers, rudders, motors, etc. of the vessels of recreational boaters and anglers. It is likely that many of the aquatic invasive plants and small-bodied organisms introduced into the Adirondack Region have been transported by recreational watercraft.

To combat this growing problem, New York is expanding its boat steward program in the Adirondacks and ensuring consistency of steward program delivery. Watershed stewards help prevent the spread of AIS through boating activities by delivering AIS spread prevention education and outreach to boaters, conducting courtesy boat and trailer inspections, showing boaters how to inspect and remove plants and organisms from their boats, trailers, and other equipment; and conducting boat, trailer, and equipment decontamination as needed.

In response to the growing threat of AIS in the Adirondack region, the Adirondack regionwide Watercraft Inspection Steward Program (hereafter referred to as the Program or ADK WISP) was established in 2015. This IFB continues and builds upon the Program, in part by adding sites formerly funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, for a total of up to 60 locations, 90 stewards, and 28 decontamination locations starting in 2023. This Invitation for Bids (IFB) is for services required to continue the delivery of the Program within the Adirondack region for a five-year period (2023-2027).

Boat stewards will help contain species in these waterbodies and prevent the introduction of additional species through voluntary watercraft inspections and education and outreach for all recreational water users at designated locations and at tournaments and fairs where appropriate. New York State regulation (6 NYCRR Part 576) requires that all watercraft users take "reasonable precautions" by cleaning, draining, and drying their watercraft and equipment prior to launching into public waterbodies. Stewards will help water recreationists comply with these requirements by assisting the public in performing these steps and by educating them to learn and apply these requirements independently and in regular practice. In addition, as is required by the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL Article 9-1711) in the Adirondack Park and a 10 mile buffer of the Park, the steward program will inspect motorized watercraft and provide self-certification forms to boaters for demonstrating compliance with ECL 9-1711 as needed.

The Program is intended to protect waters particularly vulnerable to AIS by providing education and outreach and voluntary boat inspection at the Department’s boat access sites on those waters having high priority plant AIS and/or microscopic AIS (animals) and at Department boat access sites on other waters that do not have AIS. High priority AIS are those non-native species that rank “high” or “very high” in New York’s ecological assessments and for which the Department has determined that boats can be important vectors for transport and introduction. In addition, stewards may be assigned to assist with aquatic invasive species surveying, monitoring and control efforts as well as provide education and outreach at specific events at the Department’s discretion and when such duties do not limit core services in conducting watercraft inspections.