Red Swamp Crayfish: An Invasive Species in the Clinton River Watershed
Invasive species have long been a difficult challenge for the Great Lakes and their tributaries, including the Clinton River watershed. Invasive plants and animals can alter habitats, reduce biodiversity, and disrupt ecological balance. This leads to long-term environmental and economic consequences.
The red swamp crayfish is one of these invasive species. They can have a devastating effect on local ecosystems by outcompeting native species for resources and by degrading habitat quality.
Red swamp crayfish feed on fish and amphibian eggs and outcompete our native crayfish for prey and territory. Due to the species’ burrowing habits, red swamp crayfish can erode and destabilize banks, increase sedimentation, degrade water quality, and damage human infrastructure. As secondary burrowers, they are also highly adaptable to changing environmental conditions and can proliferate in a diverse range of habitats by surviving droughts and temperature shifts in their shallow burrows.
The Clinton River Watershed Council, together with Friends of the Rouge, was recently awarded a grant through the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program (MISGP) to monitor red swamp crayfish.
The grant allowed our staff members to spend two years monitoring locations throughout both watersheds for red swamp crayfish. We know that these crayfish are established in both watersheds, but during our monitoring period, we found no additional red swamp crayfish populations.
The data we collected through the MISGP grant will inform policy decisions and resource allocation, ensuring that efforts to control invasive species are efficient and impactful.
Monitoring projects like these are essential to limit the spread of invasive species and to mitigate their effects. Monitoring also helps us understand the distribution and population dynamics of invasive species, allowing for more effective management strategies.
Since we know that red swamp crayfish can be found in the Clinton River watershed, it’s important for watershed residents to understand this species, know how to identify them, and be familiar with the steps to take if a crayfish is found.
In addition, watershed residents benefit when we are able to control or limit iInvasive species. The result is healthy ecosystems, cleaner water, more robust fisheries, preserved natural beauty and recreational opportunities.
Residents can help us control the red swamp crayfish population by reviewing this image to learn how to identify red swamp crayfish. If you see one—don't move it—to do so is illegal! Instead, take a photo, note its location and report it at michigan.gov/invasives.
This project was funded by the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program (michigan.gov/invasives).