SJL Client, Lakes at Stake: Makes Waves on The Front Page of Wis. State Journal

Diverse coalition to protect Wisconsin lakes from wake boat damage grows quickly

Mitchell Schmidt | Wisconsin State Journal

Just five months ago, five organizations launched an effort to protect Wisconsin’s

lakes from the damaging effects of wake-enhanced boating.

The Coalition to Protect Wisconsin’s Lakes now boasts more than 60 state-based

groups, including several that don’t always see eye-to-eye on conservation issues. It’s

focused on pressing Wisconsin lawmakers to implement statewide rules regulating

the use of wake-enhanced boats — watercrafts built or equipped with large ballast

tanks to create bigger waves for water sports — on Wisconsin’s inland lakes.

“This issue is incredibly unifying,” said Cody Kamrowski, executive director with

Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, one of the coalition’s founding organizations. “We

have more traditionally conservative hunting and fishing groups and more left-

leaning environmental groups that are signed onto this. They all get the issue and

they all understand it and want something done. That part has been extremely

encouraging.”

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Mitchell Schmidt | Wisconsin State Journal

“We’re trying to be geographically diverse throughout the state, but also the political

diversity really speaks to it,” Kamrowski continued. “We want this done and it

shouldn’t matter what your party affiliation is or if this should be a Republican or

Democrat bill, it’s a conservation bill.”

A recent study released last month by Terra Vigilis Environmental Services

Group, which looked into wake boating impacts on Connecticut’s Lake Waramaug,

found that wake boats produced waves at least twice as high — and four times as

powerful — when compared to a standard ski boat.

While rapidly growing in popularity, wake boating also has created a slew of concerns

due in large part to the impact the waves created by such vessels have on lake shores

and beds, aquatic life, fellow recreationalists and lakeshore property.

“What’s unique about this issue is these boats impact negatively so many different

things that you get this big coalition because everybody feels like they’re getting

hammered by the waves and downward prop wash coming off these boats,” said Scott

Rolfs, secretary with Lakes at Stake Wisconsin.

The Terra Vigilis study found that the deep-water propellor downwash caused by

wake boats can have an impact at depths of at least 26 feet, which can be harmful to

deep weed beds and fish habitats. Such downwash effects were not caused by ski or

cruising boats, according to the report.

“To create that big wave the boat has to operate on a 30- to 40-degree angle with the

bow up, and what that does is it aims the prop wash down at the bottom of the lake,”

Rolfs said. “It’s kind of like taking a jet engine and aiming down at the bottom of a

lake or river.”

With that in mind, as the new legislative session begins, the coalition plans to ask

lawmakers to craft statewide minimum protections that would prohibit such vessels

from creating artificial wakes within 700 feet of the shore and in areas with a depth of

less than 30 feet. Such measures would prevent major disturbances on the lakebed

and allow for enough distance for magnified waves to disperse before reaching the

shore, Kamrowski said.

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Rolfs noted that the proposal would set a minimum statewide standard. Local

communities that have jurisdiction over lakes still could pass more-stringent rules if

deemed necessary.

While just more than 30 Wisconsin communities have passed local ordinances for

wake-enhanced boats spanning across about 200 lakes, Rolfs said there are still about

2,000 lakes that are 50 acres or larger without any artificial wake protections.

The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians Tribal Council last

year banned wake boats on all reservation lakes.

A bill introduced last legislative session, which was backed by boating industry

groups like the National Marine Manufacturers Association and Water Sports

Industry Association, would have barred wakesurfing or wakeboarding within 200

feet of a shoreline. The proposal, which was opposed by environmental groups like

Lakes at Stake Wisconsin and the River Alliance of Wisconsin, ultimately failed to

pass.

Meleesa Johnson, executive director of Wisconsin’s Green Fire, said she’s optimistic

heading into the new legislative session, due in large part to the coalition’s size and

diversity.

“There’s incredible strength when people who seem to be on opposite sides find

common ground and work together,” Johnson said. “That is powerful.”

“This is a very big state with very diverse typography and bedrock and soils and

wetlands and we need to acknowledge that standards need to be set taking all of those

things into consideration,” she said.