SANDPOINT - Fewer breaks will be given to boaters caught navigating Bonner County waterways without Idaho invasive species stickers.

Now that the program has been around for several years and stickers are widely available, Bonner County Sheriff's marine deputies will be enforcing the law a little more rigorously.

"We see a lot of noncompliance," said patrol Lt. Cary Kelly, who estimated that about 50 percent of the kayakers and canoeists he has encountered did not have the requisite sticker.

"We kind of gave 'em a break because there were periods where they were unavailable and hard to get," Kelly said.

The $10 sticker fee is automatically applied to annual Idaho motorboat registration renewals. The sticker is $22 for out-of-state motorized boats. The stickers are $7 for kayaks and canoes.

The stickers can be purchased from local vendors or online through the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.

The penalty for failing to have the sticker affixed to your boat can result in a $67 fine, according to Kelly.

The sticker program assists in efforts to prevent the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species. Of particular concern are zebra and quagga mussels, bi-valve mollusks which are wreaking havoc on waterways around the West.

The state has managed to thwart the introduction of the mussels in Idaho waterways through an aggressive boat-inspection program.

"To date, nine watercraft have been intercepted with mussels on them in the state," said Tom Woolf, aquatic plant program manager for the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.

Most of the interceptions have been at the Cedars inspection station on westbound Interstate 90 near Coeur d'Alene, Woolf said. The contaminated boats were coming from either the Great Lakes, Lake Havasu or Lake Mead.

Invasive mussels are profoundly prolific and adhere to boats or any other available hard surfaces in a contaminated waterway.

The problem is so bad at Lake Mead that beaches have to be power-washed so visitors don't cut their feet up and ownership of costly boat lifts are de rigueur, said Betsy Hull of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"They're everywhere. On everything," said Hull, a member of the Bonner County Aquatic Invasive Species Task Force.

Hull recently received enhanced boat decontamination training at Lake Mead and was astonished to learn that boats are not being pressure-washed when they're pulled from the lake.

"It is completely up to us to stop these boats," she said.

Sticker vendors

Sandpoint - Alpine Boat & Ski Shop, Bonner Soil & Water Conservation District

Ponderay - Sandpoint Marine & Motorsports, Sandpoint Outfitters

Dover - Dover Bay Market & Cafe

Sagle - Garfield Shores Resort, Mays Honda, Round Lake State Park

Hope - Holiday Shores, Hope Marine Services, Pend Oreille Shores

Clark Fork - Britt's Power Sports Rental

Priest River - Mac's Gas & Grocery

Oldtown - Selkirk Hardware

Priest Lake - Action Marine Northwest, Blue Diamond Marina, Hill's Resort, Elkins Resort, Grandview Lodge, Leonard Paul Store, Priest Lake State Park, Tamrak True Value