Boat shows are taking place across the country as water recreation enthusiasts anticipate the summer season.

A new report from Minnesota highlights discussions about how to keep people safe on lakes, while protecting natural environments. The state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently released the results of a survey of nearly 3,000 boaters.

In the metro area, nearly 45% of respondents cited high wake from other boaters as a problem. These concerns coincide with the popularity of wake-surfing.

Jeff Forester, executive director of Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates, said speaking with lake associations, the marine industry and other stakeholders, it’s clear something needs to be done.

“All groups come to the idea that we need to take action to protect public safety,” Forester said. “To make sure people who recreate on the lakes have a good time, and we don’t negatively impact the resource while we do it.”

Forester said it’s important to remember that high wakes can create environmental damage, such as shoreline erosion. His group prefers to oblige all boat operators to obtain a licence.

A bill was tabled last year but was not heard. Its sponsor, along with the DNR, said expanding the requirement could be part of broader discussions this year to add security measures.

Adam Block, boating law administrator for the DNR, said concerns about some boating activities come as sales surge during the pandemic. Over the past two years, Minnesotans have purchased more than 16,000 new motorized watercraft.

With a number of them bigger and faster, he said they are taking a fresh look at how to approach the boating experience, and education is part of that.

“We continue to see many new boaters brought into this sport,” Block observed. “And it’s not just for Minnesota, it’s happening across the country.”

Block noted that the overall effort follows a near-record summer last year in boater deaths. He added that talks can be expected during the legislative session, but it is unclear if any action will be taken and what the scope would be. Lawmakers are expected to focus on other issues, including a bail bill.

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The Great Lakes contain around a fifth of Earth’s fresh water, but a new report indicates they are getting saltier – and says that is cause for concern.

Lake Michigan was at a salinity level of one to two milligrams of chloride per liter of lake water. Now that concentration has risen to nearly 15 milligrams per liter.

Hilary Dugan, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Limnology, said that was still a relatively low level for a body of water as large as Lake Michigan. But rising chloride levels could pose problems for plants and animals in small lakes and the tributaries that feed into them.

“If anything, we’re just harming native freshwater species that are adapted to, you know, Wisconsin waters that have virtually no salt,” Dugan said. “And now, you know, we’ve increased the salt ten, a hundred times, depending on what body of water we’re looking at.”

She said salt levels needed to reach around 250 milligrams per liter to pose a serious risk to plants, animals and humans, and notes that virtually all chloride pollution comes from road salt.

Dugan added that people can reduce lake and stream pollution this winter by limiting their use of salt on roads, driveways and sidewalks.

Unlike other chemical pollutants, Dugan said salt pollution is not irreversible. She explained that during their life cycle, lakes and streams will gradually eliminate it from their system.

“Salt stays dissolved in water, and so lakes and rivers will naturally drain,” Dugan said. “So what it takes to reduce salinity is just to stop the amount of salt that gets into these bodies of water.”

The report found that about 70% of the salt flowing into Lake Michigan comes from just five of the body’s 300 tributaries.

Dugan said if nothing is done to fix the problem, the salt concentration in the lake will increase by about one milligram per liter every two to three years.

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A fund created seven years ago following Clark County’s violation of the Clean Water Act is helping improve salmon habitat and clean up stormwater from the Columbia River.

Clark County was sued more than a decade ago for approving weaker pollution regulations for features such as big box stores and housing estates. After losing in court, the county accepted one of the largest citizen penalties in Washington state history: $3 million.

Jan Hasselman, a Seattle-based senior attorney for Earthjustice who worked on the case, said the money did not go to Washington, DC.

“What we agreed instead was that the county would contribute to a local salmon habitat restoration fund,” Hasselman said. “This fund is overseen by biologists and professionals who ensure the money addresses the most important issues.”

The penalty helped create the Clark County Clean Water Restoration Fund, which, with matching investments, has funded 25 water restoration projects in the area.

Hasselman said stormwater is the biggest source of water pollution in Washington state.

The Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board selected and distributed funds to projects. Denise Smee, program manager with the council, said they have implemented a variety of programs.

“We’ve worked with partners to reduce oil leaks from automobiles, the program doesn’t drip or drive,” Smee said. “They have worked with property owners and owners to facilitate repairs on failing storm water fixtures, septic systems.”

The projects have led to the planting of more than 80,000 trees to improve the quality of rainwater. It also supports K-12 education programs, providing classroom and field instruction to more than 7,700 students. Smee said these programs had a big impact on students.

“It’s still a huge increase in kids’ knowledge, but also in their interest in the subject,” Smee said. “A lot of them, after these projects, are interested in getting into natural resources or the environmental field or working with those kinds of positions and jobs.”

Many of the projects to clean up storm water and improve salmon habitat will continue over the next few years.

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CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming and other western states could see consecutive years without snow as early as 35 if efforts to limit fossil fuel emissions fail to meet global targets, according to a new report.

Nearly 75% of water use in the western states comes from snow.

Matt Rice, Southwest Regional Manager for American Rivers Group, said the report should be a wake-up call for water managers and policy makers to make plans now for a future with far less water. water.

“How can we build resilience in this new, drier future for the West? Rice questioned. “It’s important to make sure we have the capacity to keep water in the rivers, to dedicate water to the environment, to fish, to wildlife.”

Rising temperatures have already reduced snow accumulation by 20% below 1950s levels, and researchers predict that by the end of the century the vast majority of years – up to 94% – will see little or no snowfall. The loss of snow will not just close ski resorts. Scientists have already linked fading snowfall to more frequent and catastrophic wildfires.

The first sector likely to experience water restrictions will be agriculture.

Rice said investments are needed to help farmers and ranchers retool for more efficient irrigation and conservation because no one wants to see massive land reclamation across the West.

“And it’s not like when you remove water that the land comes back with native grasses, plants and shrubs,” Rice warned. “It’s often land that’s been irrigated for over 100 years, and getting the water out of it creates a sort of ‘landscape of death’.”

Adaptation recommendations include monitoring weather conditions to avoid flooding by capturing increasingly intense, though less frequent, downpours to replenish aquifers. While disputes over water rights have a long history in Western states, Rice noted that the issue has traditionally transcended political boundaries.

“As scarcity increases, I fear it will escalate into a partisan, or rural versus urban, issue when it comes to water,” Rice said. “These challenges are so great that we cannot afford not to all be in the same boat.”

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