Category: Uncategorized

Last night’s hearing on the wake boat rule was a solid success for Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes. With 100 people in attendance at the Richmond Free Library, the Department of Environmental Conservation heard 44 speakers, 38 of whom supported a strong rule with an offset of 1000 feet or more. Four favored no rule…

Next week we enter the home stretch of our quest to manage wakesports on Vermont lakes. For more than two years we have been working with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and with thousands of Vermonters to craft a rule that would keep wakesports in deep water, far from shore, where they do the…

Rulemaking Update This edition of the RWVL newsletter arrives at a crucial point in our quest to regulate wakesports on Vermont lakes. It describes the new location for the public hearing on August 1; it describes the growing public support for a strong rule; it points to the favorable press reports and opinion pieces that…

The last round of public hearings on the wake boat rule will take place: Tuesday, August 1, 2023, at 5:00 PM live and in-person at Richmond Library; Wednesday, August 3, 2023, at 5:00 PM virtually, on-line. RWVL asks you to sign up to speak at one of these sessions. They form the last live opportunity…

Sign-ups open on Monday morning Join fellow lake-lovers at the Richmond Library on Tuesday, August 1 to help support and strengthen the Department of Environmental Conservation’s proposed rule to restrict wakeboats. We’ll meet for a rally nearby at 4:00 PM, then walk over to the Library for the 5:00 hearing. You’ll hear eyewitness testimony from…

for why 500 feet is not enough. As the countdown to the August 1 public hearing on the state’s wakeboard rule ticks away, many Vermonters are asking why the 500-foot-from-shore offset proposed by the Department of Environmental Conservation is inadequate. To answer this question, Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes (RWVL) has prepared a six-page position…

The Vermont Agency of of Natural Resources (ANR) just sent to the Secretary of State its official notice of a rule to regulate wake sports on Vermont lakes and ponds. This is an important milestone for Vermont, and for the progress of our efforts to keep our lakes healthy and safe. RWVL thanks and congratulates…

A Call to Action The violent intrusion of even one wake surfer would have made all that impossible here on Lake Elmore. This is what all of us at Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes are working so hard to preserve. And this summer, we need your help more than ever. The next month will determine…

For this edition of the Responsible Wakes newsletter, we interviewed Kathleen Chatot from Joe’s Pond, Paul Zaloom from Woodbury Lake, Pam Ladds from Lake Memphremagog, and a swimmer from Lake Champlain. All are are serious swimmers who have enjoyed Vermont’s lakes for many years. Kathleen Chatot, Joe’s Pond Kathleen, tell us about your swimming on…

The dictionary tells us that turbidity is the quality of being cloudy, opaque, or thick with suspended matter. Something we don’t want to see in our lakes. Scientists have studied the causes and effects of turbidity in lake water. Here are some of their findings: These findings led Sebastien Raymond and his colleagues at the…