In February, the Department of Environmental Conservation invited Vermonters to comment on the stronger wakesports rules that they have proposed for Vermont’s inland lakes. The comments are in, and they show that Vermonters overwhelmingly support the rule changes proposed by DEC.
Of the 1,200 raw comments submitted with the online form, 941 or 79% support the proposed rules, while 232 or 19% oppose them. A handful of submissions, about 2%, were unclear.¥
A closer reading finds that 183 of the submissions were duplicates: the same content copied and pasted and submitted several times; or the same person sending in multiple submissions. If we discount the duplicates — which arrived from both sides of the issue — we see a modified picture, as shown below.
The key conclusion is that Vermonters overwhelmingly support the strengthening of rules for the operation of wakesports.
A few other interesting findings from a close reading of the comments include:
- Widespread Advocacy: Support for the rules originated from dozens of lakes across the entire state.
- Concentrated Opposition: Most opposing comments were linked to just two lakes: Bomoseen and Fairlee.
- Family & Industry Influence: Many opposing comments came from just two families, on Lake Bomoseen and Lake Fairlee.
- Most duplicate opposing entries were copied from Water Sports Industry Association templates.
- Safety Concerns: Many supporters provided eyewitness accounts of recent unsafe incidents caused by wakesports.
What’s Next?
Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes is now focused on helping the DEC shepherd these rules through the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (LCAR). Our goal is to have these protections in place by the summer of 2026, which would prohibit wakesports on 13 additional lakes.
¥ While RWVL expects our individual hand count analysis to closely track the DEC “Support” and “Oppose” tallies of their submission “Form,” official DEC data have not yet been made available.
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