Don’t Wink At This One!

Stalking Aquatic Invasive Species (AIG) on Lake Minnetonka, MN, is a new video-capture system called “I-LIDS” (pronounced eye-lids) developed by Eric Lindberg of Environmental Sentry Protection (ESP)

I-LIDS is an un-manned system to monitor boat landing activities, capture video events, and make this information available for review by lake constituents and officials. It’s a tamper-proof, onsite solution to capture boater activities to ensure compliance with the Aquatic Invasive Species clean-off laws so lakes can be protected from the extensive impact of new exotic species.

I-LIDS sits low to the ground in a little steel bunker near the ramp so that it can peek under boats and trailers. I-LIDS is smart: it detects motion, ramps up juice from its solar power unit, turns on lights if needed, and takes pictures which it transmits with labeling to a remote server. It can even talk, …well, play a message if appropriate.

I-LIDS isn’t a sneak. There’s a clear posting of who it is and what it does so that boaters know they should heed the rules. (Among other things, LIDS records the license plate.) Actually, LIDS did sneak for a while so that it would be able to see if folks changed their habits when watched.

Surprise! They did. The number of boats launched with vegetation dropped by about seventy-five percent when I-LIDS was on duty. Good habits appeared in companion studies as well.

Minnesota’s recommendation: ”Continue and expand usage of I-LIDS automated monitoring and posted signage to close gaps in monitoring coverage.”

You see? People can change in the wink of an eye, and it’s not even painful.