By this point in history, we believe most Michigan residents are well aware of the existence of invasive species, the often tiny (although not always) critters and plant life that end up doing great damage to area and regional water habitats.

Most of what we hear, in terms of the battle to ward off the invasives, is related to the Great Lakes. The never-ending war going back decades against the sea lamprey comes to mind as one good example. The more recent fight against the Asian carp is another.

Both are native to other places but ended up in area and U.S. waterways, often adversely impacting species that are native.

But other battles against invasives are being fought including one recently at the Hoist Basin in Negaunee Township where the annual Aquatic Invasive Species Landing Blitz took place.

In a nutshell, the blitz is an educational effort hosted by the Upper Peninsula Power Company, the Lake to Lake Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Dead River Campers Inc.

A table of information was set up and experts were standing by to answer questions about the issue.

“We just want to educate people on invasive species, what they can do to prevent it, what they can do to ID it, who they can contact if they think they found something,” Elise Desjarlais, coordinator for the Lake to Lake Cooperative, said for a recent Mining Journal story on the matter.

We like this kind of worthwhile work because we believe that all of us can learn something from it. Winning the war against invasives isn’t a set-piece battle but a series of small skirmishes and this kind of event plays an important role.