Vermonters and others who specifically value clean water may reinforce this love by attending the last public airing of the need to control a threat to our lakes and ponds known as wake boating and wake sports.
Called by the Department of Environmental Conservation and Agency of Natural Resources, the meeting is scheduled at the Richmond Free Library, 201 Bridge St., Richmond VT, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1.
Wake sports bring to Vermont lakes and ponds boats designed and/or modified to impose massive hydraulic displacement on placid inland waters. High-horsepower fun guaranteed to drive swimmer, paddleboarder, kayaker, fly fisher, canoeist and sailor off the lake.
As a swimmer, I came damn close to being run over by a wake boat on Lake Willoughby. At the time, I’d never heard the term “wake boat.” I was invisible to the pilot of the boat coming at me. Nor was he visible to me — until the boat passed. The wakeboarder behind the boat glanced at me in surprise as he swept by. Had the wake boat not angled slightly to my left, I would not be writing this.
Along with the fantasy of ocean waves, wake boats catalog a list of hazards for Vermont lakes and ponds that read like a horror movie: milfoil, zebra mussels and other nasty invasives, pollution, noise, destruction of fish resource, bird resource, property value, degradation of lake shore and lake bottom, and death to respectful recreation.
David Bradshaw
Charleston
