Report on January 14th and March 4th 2025 Manitowish Waters Town Board Meetings on Agenda Items Related to Wake Surfing
January 14th Town Board Public Hearing and Town Board Meeting:
The Manitowish Waters Town Board approved sending to the DNR a draft ordinance titled “Restricting Certain Artificial Wake Enhancement”. This draft ordinance applies only to lakes wholly within the Town of Manitowish Waters. The ordinance was sent to the DNR for their review, a step required by statute for any new proposed ordinance related to use of the waters.
The Jan 14th Town of Manitowish Waters Public Hearing regarding a possible ordinance related to wake surfing was attended by approximately 80—100 people. The Lakeland Times reports that approximately 70 more were also in attendance by Zoom. Comments, opinions and personal experiences were offered over a period of approximately 2 hours on two different proposed ordinances.
Following the Public Hearing the Town held its January Town Board meeting. The agenda item “Proposed Ordinance Controlling Wake Surfing” was discussed. Town Chair John Hanson reported that he had received over 300 emails on the two draft ordinance recommendations.
After discussion, Supervisor Schroeder made a motion to send to the DNR for review the draft ordinance that included the following 2 prohibitions and one exclusion.
- Prohibited Equipment. No person may use or employ ballast tanks, ballast bags or fins to cause a boat to operate in a bow-high manner, or which increases or enhances a boat's wake.
- Prohibited Operation. No person may operate a boat in an artificially bow-high manner having the effect of increasing the boat's wake. Such prohibited operation shall include wake enhancement by use of ballast tanks, or ballast bags, or fins, or continuous operation at transition speed (the speed below planing speed in which a boat is operating in plowing mode).
- Certain Operations Excluded. In no event shall any of the following operations be deemed a violation of this Ordinance, provided such operations do not use or employ ballast tanks, water sacks or wake enhancing fins: i) water skiing, ii) tubing, iii) wake boarding employing a tow rope; iv) brief transition operation to empty a boat of bilge water, or v) brief transition operation of a boat accelerating into a planing condition.
Chair Hanson and Supervisor Schroeder voted to send the draft ordinance to the DNR; Supervisor Ziese voted in opposition.
Any lakes not wholly within the Town of Manitowish Waters were not included in this draft ordinance voted on in January. Coordination between the Towns of Manitowish Waters and Boulder Junction are required for an ordinance related to Clear Lake and Island Lake. Coordination between the Towns of Manitowish Waters and Winchester would be required for any ordinance related to Circle Lily Lake.
Chair Hanson clarified that the action taken at the January Town Board meeting was not approval of an ordinance, but approval to send the ordinance to the DNR for review. Additional action would be required by the Town Board before any ordinance regarding wake surfing would proceed.
March 4th Manitowish Waters Town Board Meeting:
Board approval was given to send to the DNR for review a draft of “An Ordinance Restricting Certain Artificial Wake Enhancement for Certain Border Lakes”. Border lakes are those lakes not wholly within any one town. This ordinance covers Island Lake and Clear Lake, two lakes that lie partly in Manitowish Waters and partly in Boulder Junction.
The 2 prohibitions and the one exclusion of this Manitowish Waters draft ordinance have essentially the same wording as the previous draft ordinance passed in January covering lakes wholly within the Town.
That wording is:
- Prohibited Equipment. No person may use or employ ballast tanks, ballast bags, fins or similar devices to cause a boat to operate in a bow-high manner, or which increases or enhances a boat's wake.
- Prohibited Operation. No person may operate a boat in an artificially bow-high manner having the effect of increasing the boat's wake. Such prohibited operation shall include wake enhancement by use of ballast tanks, or ballast bags, or fins, or similar devices or continuous operation at transition speed (the speed below planing speed in which a boat is operating in plowing mode) and similar methods. For the purpose of this provision, “continuous operation” shall mean “operation that is not acceleration for the purpose of achieving a state of planing.”
- Certain Operations Excluded. In no event shall any of the following operations be deemed a violation of this Ordinance, provided such operations do not use or employ ballast tanks, water sacks or wake enhancing fins or similar devices or methods: i) water skiing, ii) tubing, iii) wake boarding employing a tow rope; iv) brief transition operation to empty a boat of bilge water, or v) brief transition operation of a boat accelerating into a planing condition.
The slight changes in wording reflect the modifications the DNR suggested in their review of the original draft ordinance covering lakes wholly within the Town of Manitowish Waters.
The wording also parallels the wording of the draft ordinance of Boulder Junction covering the border lakes. Minor changes in wording are present in the Boulder Junction draft ordinance that reflect it is a draft ordinance for the Town of Boulder Junction.
Chair Hanson and Supervisor Schroeder voted to send the draft ordinance on border lakes to the DNR; Supervisor Ziese voted in opposition.
Chair Hanson again clarified that the action taken at the town board meeting was not approval of an ordinance, but approval to send the ordinance to the DNR for review. Additional action will be required by the Town Board before any ordinance regarding wake surfing would proceed.
Note: On February 27th, the Town of Boulder Junction voted to send for review to the DNR a draft ordinance covering the two “border lakes” that lie partly in Boulder Junction and partly in Manitowish Waters. Those lakes are Clear Lake and Island Lake. Their draft ordinance also covers additional lakes Boulder Junction shares with other towns.
It is anticipated that the Manitowish Waters draft border lake ordinance will be received back from the DNR within the allotted 20 day period, as was the original draft ordinance for lakes wholly within the Town of Manitowish Waters.
Future Action: It was discussed at the March 4th Town Board meeting that this subject will again be on the May 13th, 2025 Town Board meeting with opportunity for public comment and possible action by the board.
The MWLA will keep our members up to date on this process through further emails and posts in the News and Updates section of the MWLA website, mwlakes.com.