MCLA Beacon Online

By Ed Damon

Staff Writer

A group of MCLA students working on a public access documentary for zebra mussels are in their final stages of editing. The group is creating the documentary to educate people about the invasive species and to stop the species from spreading.

The group, made up of English and environmental studies majors, consists of seniors Nick Smith and Tommy Flores, and juniors Pat Maguire, Ann Scott and Derek Merker. Zebra mussels are a small species of freshwater shellfish. The first mussels in the U.S. and Canada were found in the Great Lakes in the late 1980s but have spread to other bodies of water around both countries. The effects of the mussels can be devastating — though small, they multiply quickly. They can damage water treatment and power plants and also out-compete native species for food.

The first documented case of zebra mussels in a Massachusetts water body was last summer, at Laurel Lake in Lee. “It’s a really interesting issue because the only 100 percent guarantee for removal is physical removal,” Smith said. While there are alternatives, they may have unintended side effects. Chemical treatment, for example, could harm an endangered species of snail found in Laurel Lake.

Controlling the species has become a boating issue, Smith said, because mussels can easily be introduced into a body of water by clinging to the sides of boats.“They were first introduced into the U.S. through ships’ ballast water,” he said.The idea for the documentary came about from conversations at the MCLA-based Berkshire Environmental Resource Center. Environmental studies professor Elena Traister explained that the BERC is a way for the department to keep in contact with different environmental groups. The environmental studies department has had a long partnership with the Friends of Pontoosuc Lake, which manages that body of water in Lanesborough, said Traister.

“The idea to collaborate and making a documentary kept coming up,” she said. It was shortly after that zebra mussels were found in Laurel Lake. Traister said her department sent out the word to students, asking if they wanted to participate in the documentary.“It was definitely an experiment,” she said about the project. “We’ve never done collaboration with the English department before. We weren’t sure where it was going to go. But I’m excited to hear that it seems to be coming out well.”The group will finish filming this week and started editing earlier this month.

Though the documentary isn’t finished yet, Smith said there has been a lot of interest in it.“President Grant is interested in doing a public screening for it,” he said. “The Berkshire Museum has a small theater that’s open for public screenings some nights, so we may be able to show it there and also hold an environmental discussion.”