How to deal with the threat of "no wake" zones and

[Miljack]

Hi all,
any of you have to deal with the local "tree huggers" who want to change the rules on your lake? We have some movement on our lake that could be a threat to its continued use as a motorized recreation lake.
Has anybody here found an effective way to present the positive side of this to the local goverment? We are actually dealing with some organized groups who have presented some of these proposals. The no wake zones are geared at some of the locals who choose to haul a$$ up some narrow coves that are heavily populated with houses and docks.

Any and all advice welcomed!

Jack

[auskier]

Good luck, I truly hope they don't do it to your lake.
My wife grew up skiing on a river infront of her granparent's house. For at least 30 years they skied off their dock right in the back yard. About a year ago a couple of people decided to push for a No Skiing Zone and were able to get it passed on a large section of the river. Now you have to go way down river to get to a skiing zone. The crazy thing is they didn't even make it a no wake zone. Large boats can go through throwing very large wakes, fishing boats can go by at 50 mph and sea-doos can play all they want to, but you get a ticket if you ski, wakeboard or tube. They tried a petition with lots of signatures but it didn't help. Maybe someone here can chime in with the best way to fight this sort of thing.

[skiinxs]

With all of the overloaded wakeboard boats out there making huge wakes, I am afraid this is going to become more common.

[ryanandrews]

ignore them PDT_038

[PaulMcIntosh]

In Canada they have bought in a law, a speed limit so many feet from shore unless you a picking up a skier etc or dropping off. It seems to have kept the "bleeding harts" at rest for a while, sure it's not perfect, but it was better than banning towing anyone close to shore or docks full stop.
May be something you can meet them half way with on your lake.

[882001]

25 mph speed limit is a great idea. i ride at 23.5

[AbunDiga909]

I only have the No Wake Zones in the areas where you couldn't/wouldn't ski anyway, so it's all good. We have a 45 MPH speed limit during day, and 25 MPH speed limit during night, which is 1/2 hr after sunset til 1/2 hr before sunrise... I'm more worried about being told not to board so close to shore or hitting anything floating...

[j2nh]

Re: How to deal with the threat of "no wake" zones

Hi all,
any of you have to deal with the local "tree huggers" who want to change the rules on your lake? We have some movement on our lake that could be a threat to its continued use as a motorized recreation lake.
Has anybody here found an effective way to present the positive side of this to the local goverment? We are actually dealing with some organized groups who have presented some of these proposals. The no wake zones are geared at some of the locals who choose to haul a$$ up some narrow coves that are heavily populated with houses and docks.

Any and all advice welcomed!

Jack

Had some luck in Wisconsin. We were faced with potential no wake zones and limited hours for skiing. A few of us that lived on the lake got together and got organized. My advice.

Know your enemy. We met with the group and discussed specifically what it was that they objected to. At the same time we explained our lake use, specialized equipment, respect for individual's rights to equal and fair waterway usage and even took one of the more vocal opponents out with us skiing one morning. We were lucky and headed it off before it got out of hand. That was over five years ago and we currently are still without bans on skiing.

We also started policing ourselves. If somebody was doing something stupid one of us would get in there face and let them know about it. Stay away from fishermen. Don't drive or ski too close to shore, docks, or other boats. Our state requires an observer, don't ski without one even if it means not skiing at all.

Lake use is going up everywhere and if people don't get along and use some common sense it is going to get alot tougher for all of us.