JET SKI UPDATE

It’s hard to believe…jet skis on Tripp Lake are a thing of the past. This will be the third summer without them and we believe it has benefited the lake immeasurably. A quieter, cleaner lake has resulted.

Canoes and small boats can navigate without the fishtailing wakes of personal watercraft surrounding them.

Excess, unburned jet ski fuel being dumped into the lake is no longer a danger.

Loons, whose presence on a lake are an indicator of the lake’s health, are alive and well. Nests and loon eggs were in danger of being destroyed by personal watercraft invading pristine areas of the lake and destroying the habitat.

Following the lead of National Parks who were banning them in the late ‘90’s, Range Ponds Association initiated a referendum to ban them on their lakes. We quickly joined in, and with a positive vote by the Town of Poland and a Public Hearing at the State House, we were among a small group of lakes for which it was made law.

The Federal Government has now passed into law that personal watercraft are to be banned in all national parks and recreation areas by Sept 15, 2002, unless the Park Service can prove the machines don’t harm the environment on a site-by-site basis. They are already banned from 66 of the 87 parks, recreational areas and seashores where motorized boats are allowed.

Manufacturers and vendors had challenged an agreement negotiated by the Interior Department and the Bluewater Network, a San Francisco based environmental group. However, the Park Service agreed that each of the sites will be added to a list of jet ski-free zones in two years unless it can be shown the watercraft are harmless.