The Greensboro Association (GA) and the Town of Greensboro are preparing a petition to the State of Vermont to prohibit the use of wake boats on Caspian Lake. The State has been asked by Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes (RWVL) to make formal rules for wake boat use and they have responded with a proposed rule that would allow wake boats on Caspian to operate in 20 feet of water and within 500 feet of the shoreline. All incoming wake boats would have to be decontaminated to make sure that they were not carrying invasive species.
Representatives from the GA have been working with the State and RWVL over the past nine months and support the rule-making. Without a rule, wake boats will follow the same rules for other motorized craft, i.e., 200 ft from shore, no depth restrictions and no decontamination.
We also feel that wake boats would interfere with the normal uses of the Lake, such as fishing, swimming, kayaking and canoeing. This argument was used when Caspian was successful in banning jet skis.
Wake boats also have other negative effects.
- The large waves from wake boats can erode shorelines; Caspian’s shoreline is already rated as stressed by the State.
- Wake boats disturb bottom sediment, releasing phosphorus and degrading water quality. Caspian’s phosphorus levels have more than doubled in the last 20 years.
- Loon nesting sites could be flooded by waves and wake boats could kill or injure loons. For more information, please see the GA website address below.
We are reaching out to Greensboro residents and landowners to inform and educate. If you agree with our intent to ask for a ban on wake boat use on Caspian, you can sign the on-line petition. Non-residents can also sign the petition as lake or beach users.
JoAnn Hanowski and Stew Arnold, Co-Chairs of the GA Lake and Environmental Stewardship Committee
