by Emma Cotton December 3, 2024, 6:10 pm

In April, Vermont enacted long-debated, statewide restrictions on wake boats, designed to create large wakes for recreation with a goal of preventing environmental harms. The new rule only allows wake boats in 30 of the state’s inland lakes.

Now, nine associations representing 10 of those lakes are asking the state to prohibit the activity. 

The Westmore Association is petitioning to stop the sport on Lake Willoughby. Diane Ledher, who is helping to organize the effort, said the fact Lake Willoughby is large “doesn’t make it suitable for this kind of activity.”

Willoughby’s steep, glacially carved banks “cause the wave action to become more dangerous and unpredictable, and that happens to be an area where we have a huge population of paddle boarders, many of whom are novices,” she said. 

In response to the petitions, the Department of Environmental Conservation announced Tuesday that it will hold two meetings inviting members of the public to comment. 

A meeting on Dec. 10 in Newport is slated to cover petitions filed by Great and Little Averill lakes, Echo Lake, Lake Parker, Shadow Lake and Lake Willoughby, and a second meeting on Dec. 12 in Montpelier will cover the Waterbury Reservoir, Lake Fairlee, Caspian Lake and Joe’s Pond. Members of the public can also submit written comments to the department until Dec. 23. 

The state’s decision to issue restrictions on wake sports came after a long and passionate debate about the ramifications of the sport on lake ecosystems and public safety. Those restrictions cover nearly all of Vermont’s 823 lakes.