Greetings SMLA Members!
I have great news to share with you! As you know your Six Mile Lake Association board has been working to educate our residents about the damage wakeboats are doing to our shoreline, lake bottom, vegetation, fishery, moored watercraft, and especially our wildlife. This past summer our north loon platform and one of the buoys were completely dislodged and found floating together approximately 100 yards north of the original location. If this kind of boat is allowed to continue to operate on narrow, shallow lakes like Six Mile the ramifications are dire due to the type of damage listed above and our loon program will be one of them.
Critical Boat Wake Legislation Introduced in Michigan House
In the past Six Mile Lake had very few boats with motors over 50 horsepower. Now it’s common to see pontoons with two 100 horsepower or bigger motors traveling up and down. But size of motor or length of boat doesn’t determine necessarily the size of a wake. A wakeboat is specially designed to not only throw a huge wake on TOP of the water thereby creating a wave similar to an ocean wave for surfing behind but the weight of the boat and the speed of the boat, usually only six to ten mph, creates a huge UNDERWATER wave at least 15 feet deep which dislodges the substrate of the lake and creates havoc for other watercraft, wildlife, and shorelines. This is unacceptable to those of us that are struggling to keep our shorelines intact, shorelines that are already compromised from years of torrential rain events and flooding issues both natural and man-made.
So, I hope this update is welcome news and we will be encouraging quick passage of this legislation in Lansing. It can’t come too soon to save our lake.
Cherie Hogan
Communications
Six Mile Lake Association