This commentary is by Tom Ward of Thetford Center, a member of Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes, the Lake Fairlee Tri-Town Commission, and the Lake Fairlee Association.
A new invasive species has arrived on Vermont’s charming inland lakes: wake boats.
Wake boats are powerboats designed to create large (3- to 5-foot) wakes, enabling surfing behind the boat without a tow rope.
Unlike anything seen before on Vermont’s lakes, these wakes damage fragile lake ecosystems, threaten Vermont’s vibrant recreation economy, and endanger traditional lake users.
For decades, swimmers, paddlers, anglers, waterskiers and sailors have shared Vermont’s lakes and ponds harmoniously. Wakesports disrupt this harmony as a single boat enjoys a large lake area while creating unsafe conditions for many traditional users. These problems will only worsen as the number, size and power of wake boats increase.
In March 2022, the statewide citizen group Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes, representing 15 popular lakes, petitioned the Department of Environmental Conservation to limit the negative impacts of wake boats. The petition proposes wake boats operate no closer than 1,000 feet from shore.
This would allow adequate room for wakesports while providing room for other lake users’ continued safe enjoyment. The Responsible Wakes petition would prohibit wakesports from the 15 petitioning lakes, and 38 other small, vulnerable Vermont lakes.
The Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed that wakesports are a concern for Vermont’s lakes by proposing limits on where they could operate. However, the department’s’s weaker proposed rule sets the minimum wake boat operating distance from shore at only 500 feet.
As welcome as this proposal is, it does not fulfill the department’s stewardship obligation to manage public waters “… so that the various uses may be enjoyed in a reasonable manner, considering safety and the best interests of both current and future generations.”
Furthermore, Vermont’s Use of Public Waters Rules call for the Department of Environmental Conservation to settle use conflicts to “provide for all normal uses to the greatest extent possible … using the least restrictive approach….” “
Normal uses” for this purpose were defined as those existing prior to Jan. 1, 1993: fishing, swimming, boating, waterskiing, fish and wildlife habitat, wildlife observation, the enjoyment of aesthetic values, quiet solitude of the water body, and other water-based activities.
Wakesports are not considered a normal use.
The Department of Environmental Conservation claims the 500-foot distance resolves the wake boat conflict in the “least restrictive” manner. However, its proposed rule actually applies the “least restrictive requirement” backwards. The 500-foot rule is more restrictive for all normal traditional uses than for wakesports. And it does not manage the conflict “in a manner that provides for all normal uses to the greatest extent possible.”
Under the department’s proposed rule, traditional users will be relegated to a narrow 500-foot-wide strip around the shore while even a single wake boat dominates a lake’s center. Swimmers and boaters will be forced to the edges where the wakes will have adequate distance to dissipate; traditional users will have few safe alternatives to avoid the 3-to-5-foot wakes.
Sports requiring the center of the lake, such as waterskiing and sailing, will no longer be enjoyed when a wake boat is present. Swimmers, paddlers, anglers, and other small craft users — especially those less experienced and at greatest risk, children and seniors — may avoid lakes entirely to avoid injury from the dangerous wakes.
Imagine the wakes from several wake boats surfing concurrently! The science used to support the department’s proposed 500-foot operating distance does not consider multiple wake boats operating concurrently, or the ongoing industry’s history of building ever bigger and more powerful boats — wake boat motors are currently 400-plus horsepower. One manufacturer describes its boat as a “wake beast with a supercharged 600-horsepower engine just waiting to be unleashed.”
To be clear, greater restriction (a 1,000-foot operating distance) of wakesports will appropriately result in less restriction of the traditionally enjoyed activities on Vermont’s lakes. A 1,000-foot operating distance will provide more room to safely enjoy waterskiing, paddling, sailing, fishing, and swimming. A 1,000-foot operating distance will fulfill the state agency’s obligations to the greatest extent possible while being the least restrictive, as called for in Vermont law.
I applaud the Department of Environmental Conservation’s decision to move forward with a rule to manage wake boats. However, it needs to be stronger.
Please join me, dozens of public and private organizations, conservation groups, lake associations, boys’ and girls’ camps, and thousands of citizens in urging the department to be more responsible stewards of Vermont’s lakes for this and future generations by implementing a rule with a 1,000-foot wake boat operating distance from shore.
Here’s how:
- Participate in the public hearing on this rule on Aug. 1 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. (location TBD), and again online on Aug. 3 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Instructions for signing up to speak at the hearings are posted on the Department of Environmental Conservation’s rulemaking website.
- Email a written comment asking for a stronger rule to anr.wsmdlakes@vermont.gov before the Aug. 10 deadline. “Wake boats” must be included in the subject line.
- Go to www.responsiblewakes.org for the latest information on submitting comments and participating in the public hearings and the Responsible Wakes rally on Aug. 1.
