Clean, drain, dry and tag: State and county officials are relying on boaters to prevent the spread of an invasive golden mussel that has infested much of the San Francisco estuary. On Monday, new rules that aim to curb the spread of the species go into effect for all reservoirs open to recreational boating within Santa Clara County.

The first North American detection of golden mussel was in California in 2024, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The inch-long golden mussels live in both fresh and brackish waters, and county officials say they can hitch rides on boats and trailers, allowing them to spread rapidly between waterways.

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Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.