 The latest weapon in the fight against aquatic invasive species is a zebra muscle sniffing dog. Lake and lake advocates attended a two-day AIS summit in St. Cloud this week to learn more about that and the current condition of Minnesota lakes. Our Logan Gay has more. With several more lakes this summer being identified as having aquatic invasive species, many are wondering if the problem is getting better. The AIS might be getting worse. We had the starry stonewort come in and that was first found in Coronas last year and now it's in I believe six more lakes but it might be getting better because if you look at the trend lines the rate of infestation seems to be bending so I think that all this recent activity is having an impact and the response to the starry stonewort has been more aggressive. The infestations are not only affecting the lakes but also the land. There's an assessor who estimated a 31 million dollar drop in property tax values in Malax County following the walleye crash. Some believe that the worst is yet to come if they don't get a handle on the issue. Now you look at some of the southern lakes where there's you know hydrilla which is kind of it's called eutrophication which is a process of basically filling in the lake you know shallow lakes become meadows. And to better fight aquatic invasive species law enforcement have enlisted the help of a furry friend. What we have here is a boat and the officer seems about 15 minutes ago hid zebra mussels on the boat so she's going to show us how she details the boat with with Brady and Brady's gonna gonna find those zebra mussels for us and show us where they're at. Dogs like Brady are the future of keeping our lakes clean and healthy. The collaborative effort you know between Lake Associations the DNR the sheriff's office and in the public just to try to to slow down and stop the spread of invasives. Brady is just another tool in our toolbox to be able to do that and he does a good job. In St. Cloud Logan Gay Lakeland news. You can contact the DNR enforcement division if you need the services of the AIS sniffing dog the name of that dog is Brady. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.