CAMBRIDGE, Md. - All of the eastern shore side of the Chesapeake Bay is free of Nutria.
Nutria is an invasive species that was brought here in the 1940's for the fur trade. The rodent has orange teeth that will chew and eat through marshlands, destroying it. When they were wiping out the marshlands the Department of Natural Resources Biologist Jonathan McKnight says, "nutria were really direct. They absolutely ate the marsh. They went in and devoured it. They took a beautiful healthy Chesapeake Bay marsh and they left a mud flap behind."
It's been 20 years of fighting these animals with tactics of hunters, search dogs, and traps to eradicate the rodents. In early September they were gone from Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. And now efforts have ensured the eradication from the entire eastern shore side of the Chesapeake Bay. But, officials say there is still work to be done.
According to USDA wildlife services, Trevor Michaels, the east side of the bay and its tributaries are now safe from nutria.
"So removing them was crucial to begin addressing some of the other issues that we're facing. We're not done. We're not done with the problems of marsh loss in the Chesapeake. But at least one very important component that was stopping a lot of that is now gone," says Michaels,
But, officials say there is still work to be done.
"Those animals that are down there they came from North Carolina and they're moving northward. We need to work with Virginia and the states to our south to intercept that population and affect eradication there too or we're going to have this problem again in the future."
This eradication was no easy feat nor a cheap one. According to USDA, over 30 million dollars were spent to kill over 14,000 thousand nutria.
