Cheyenne Bottoms boating regulations.

[clinton bolton]

I hope everyone is having a great summer. I live about forty miles from the bottoms and it is normally a big topic of discussion with hunters here locally.A friend of mine who is a game warden here at the lake near my house met me at the boat ramp when I was loading up to go home. He warned me to pay attention to new boating regulations at the bottoms for this season.The only thing that has changed for the pool I hunt is a new no wake rule.I am good with that it has gotten out of hand.Also I never seem to be in that much of a rush.There are other changes for motorized boats in different pools.Just passing this along for those who might venture out this way.Take care!

 

[Jeff Reardon]

I know nothing about Cheyenne Bottoms--not even where it is--but have been hearing a lot of complaints via my local planning board and watershed association affiliations about excessive speeds and how larger boats are operated in no-wake zones on our local lakes.

A big complaint is a new style of play boat called wake boat that is actually designed and operated to throw a large wake for wakeboarding and even surfing behind it. Here's the Yamaha line-up, but you could find the same from many other manufacturers. https://www.yamahaboats.com/boats/categories/wake-series-boats/

Lake front landowners are complaining about erosion from the wake boats throw. I'm not sure how realistic those concerns are, but here is no doubt that use is up and we are seeing larger boats on smaller lakes than 20 years ago.

 

[Carl]

There was a study recently done in a tidal river in coastal Alabama, looking at the causes of shoreline erosion.
They set continuously recording wave gauges at various sites.
By far, the vast majority of "wave energy" was clearly generate by boat wakes, regardless of wind direction & speed.
The short, steep wave patterns generated by boat wakes are particularly damaging to non-rocky shorelines & marshes, especially those already under stress from sea level rise.