Welcome to the latest edition of the Lakes at Stake Wisconsin newsletter! We are dedicated to preserving the beauty and safety of Wisconsin’s treasured glacial lakes. This is a brief update on what is happening in Madison.
On May 28th there was a meeting at the Capitol with a group of legislators along with wakeboat lobbyists and our Lakes at Stake Wisconsin lobbyist. The purpose of the meeting was to see if consensus could be reached on statewide wakesurfing legislation.
During the meeting State Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) made it clear to all meeting participants that she would oppose any state legislation that limited or qualified local control in any respect on this issue. We applaud Senator Felzkowski for this position. Lakes and rivers in Wisconsin are unique and different, and many towns have already implemented their own ordinances or are contemplating enacting something in the months ahead. We welcome other legislators and the Governor to also affirm or reaffirm that full local control is their position as well.
The wakeboat industry’s primary goal with any statewide legislation is to pre-empt this local control, whether an outright prohibition on local ordinances or by putting some type of collar on local control. Examples of a collar might be: Your town may only have a wakesurf ordinance if you have a certain amount of annual water patrol hours, or the ordinance would need to be passed by unanimous vote, etc. Sen. Felzkowski’s commitment doesn’t mean we are out of the woods on the local control issue but having her as a champion on this point is very important and welcome.
There still is a push by a small handful of legislators to want watered down wakeboat operational standards, such as only 200 or 300 feet from shore and zero or minimal depth requirements.
We’d like to remind those in Madison that:
Public opinion on this issue is now heavily on the side of serious reforms, whether in polls, surveys or Wisconsin Conservation Congress votes.
The reputable science is on the side of serious wakesurfing reforms
53 municipalities and counting, who have enacted town ordinances covering 310 of the 2,350 lakes over 50-acres are on the side of serious wakesurfing reform
A growing and bipartisan coalition of 80 Wisconsin based groups are on the side of reform.
Over the past two years the wakeboat industry has continued to maintain that wake surfing 200’ from shore with no minimum depth requirement is sufficient to protect Wisconsin’s glacial lakes.
The wakeboat manufacturers seem to be oblivious to the fact that existing state statutes mandate a minimum 100’ slow-no-wake zone to protect shorelines and swimmers and that many municipalities, exercising local control, have increased their slow-no wake zones to 200’ and in some cases 300’. Thus 200 feet from shore isn’t any different than existing slow-no-wake regulations for a number of Wisconsin lakes.
All of the reputable in-water studies that have been undertaken in the U.S. have concluded that wake surf waves require 600’ to diminish in size and energy to equal other typical power boats at 200’ from shore. There is no justification for allowing perhaps less than 1% of Wisconsin’s registered boat owners to risk damaging shorelines, docks and boat lifts, not to mention endangering swimmers near shorelines.
And this is before accounting for lake depth. We’re only beginning to understand the full impacts of downward prop wash on lake bottoms. Testing on Lake Waramaug in Connecticut in 2024, produced video of disturbance as deep as 26 feet. Additional testing is on-going. Bottom scouring is a serious issue in that it damages fish habitat, increases nutrients in the water column that can lead to algae blooms, and increases turbidity.
Before Wisconsin legislators rush forward with industry recommended regulations, they should ask the wake boat industry to prove why their numbers are sufficient to protect our glacial lakes. You can draw your own conclusions as to why their industry has yet to agree to transparent testing on lakes here in Wisconsin. We’ve challenged the wakeboat manufacturers to no avail.
The vast majority of Wisconsin lake users have made their position clear that they do not want to see their lakes continue to be battered by these boats designed to produce massive artificial wake. We don’t allow Monster Trucks to run through public parks. We need to protect our lakes in the same way.
Hold the wakeboat manufacturer’s accountable for their products and vet their claims before putting our lakes at risk.