A public hearing on whether to ban motorized boats from Wolcott pond was held at the Wolcott Town Offices on Tuesday night.
The pond has a 5 mph speed limit for boats that have an internal combustion engine, but the restriction is not enforced, proponents of a ban claim.
The Friends of Wolcott Pond, a nonprofit organization designed to preserve natural and scenic resources, filed a petition asking the Agency of Natural Resources to designate the 86-acre body of water as a quiet pond, which would prohibit combustion engines.
Proponents of the ban claim the speed limit is difficult to enforce, in part due to the size of the sign posting the speed limit, which is located on a bulletin board at the public landing.
But speed is not their only issue with motorized boats. The pond is “unusual for its wilderness nature,” their petition states, a characteristic that is threatened by the use of motorized boats.
Steve McLeod, executive director for the Vermont Traditions Coalition, an organization that lobbies for outdoor recreational activities and Vermont’s sporting community, said there is not a widespread problem with motorized boats on the lake.
“There was little or no testimony from prohibition proponents that the amount of motorized traffic was overwhelming and dangerous,” McLeod wrote in a statement addressed to Leslie Welts, attorney for the watershed management division of the Department of Environmental Conservation.
He said before a ban is enacted, prohibition proponents should focus on an enforcement strategy reminding motorized boat users that there is a speed limit on the pond before seeking an outright ban.
Jeff Hill, who has a fourth-generation, family-owned the camp on the pond, said many people would not be able to access the camp without motorized boats.
To get to his camp, he either has to walk through the woods or take a boat because there is no road.
He said some people would not be able to use the pond without motorized boats, such as the elderly, families with children and camp-owners carrying cargo. To limit internal combustion engines, he said, would be to prohibit certain people from using the pond.
“I feel that that’s not what the waterways in the state of Vermont were intended for,” Hill said. “I think that it was intended for all.”
Hill has about 500 signatures on a petition to keep motorized boats on the pond, he said.
McLeod said about 40 to 50 people attended the hearing. Petitions on both sides of the issue have been filed with the state’s Agency of Natural Resources.
He said positions on the issue were evenly divided at Tuesday’s hearing.
