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Statewide Access Restrictions? Wright County Inspections Seals And Fees- , Urgent Update


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Mar 19, 2019 Wright County AIS public meeting recap:

 

The Wright County passed the AIS ordinance today with a 3 to 2 vote. Now it is entirely up to the DNR commissioner to approve it. The Wright County commissioners said that if the DNR does not approve it by April 15th, the whole proposal is dead for good.

 

Here are some more details from  the meeting. There were about 50 people attending, 99% lake shore owners. They all applauded the proposed ordinance (except for the self-certification part). One after another they spoke about how much trouble their lake is in and how much it has cost them to keep AIS at bay. They did a great job of presenting “the sky is falling” to the county commissioners (I always find it interesting that there is no mention of restrictions on lake shore owners using lawn fertilizer that turns the lakes into a green slimy mess. Seems to me that would be a no brainer if you really cared about the lake). Most made a point that they are not trying to privatize their lake and are offended when they hear that. On the other hand, not once did anyone mention that we need to come up with a better way that does not restrict access. Only one lone fisherman addressed the council and said that he bypassed the three test lakes last year and will bypass the additional lakes if this passes, too much hassle. Hmm, funny how that works. Imagine if this catches on and all the lakes are restricted, sell the boat I guess. There was also mention of a need for an exit inspection process. Not sure what that means, but didn’t sound like it would be in lieu of the proposed inspections and you may end up having to get inspected before and after you go to the lake.

 

Also of interest, the commissioners said they have received many inquiries from lake associations around the state and there were several other lake association representatives at the meeting to observe and see how they could implement this same strategy. So Wright County will be the test case for every county in the state to run with this. What a disastrous precedent. Not to mention the regulations and tags would be different for every county, making it cumbersome and impractical. The self-certification will have a cost of $10 to $40, so multiply that by how many counties you fish.

 

What you can do if you want to stop this from happening:

The entire fate of this proposal now rest on the DNR. The Wright County commissioners will meet with the DNR commissioner on Mar 21. If the DNR does not approve the plan by April 15, it will be dead. Send your concerns to these DNR contacts right away so that they receive it before they meet with the Wright County people.

 

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

 

 

PS,  you can read the emails send to Wright County on this link. Notice how organized the lake associations are with their form letter that you just sign and send. In particular, notice the one from the Clearwater association #34 on the page (see where this is heading?).

http://www.co.wright.mn.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/6489?fileID=13556

 

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I just wrote to those five people. I am amazed at how I live in the South Haven area and yet every time I learn about these meetings after they happen. And they don’t understand why we feel they want us to stay off “their lake”.  Need to be more open and up front publicly about these meetings.

As I have stated before in another forum, I have not fished Sylvia since this was implemented. Also I have not bought bait or boat gas in South Haven the last 2 years. I will spend my money where it is welcomed. I have been cleaning my boat at landings for years, plus power washing it when I get home. I am sure many good anglers/boaters do as well and for them to make us go through this inspection, which is out of the way and not even open 24 hours is rediculous. I am all for stopping the spread of AIS, but there needs to be better ways of doing a it than keeping the lake from all users. 

We need everyone to get involved in this even if you don’t live near these lakes.  AIS is affecting us all but we need everyone to speak up about how it will be dealt with, or more lakes will be “closed” to the public with this inspection program.

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A brief overview of the proposal that you object to would have been nice.  Either that or post in the forum for the area where people might know what you are talking about.    

 

 

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

sheesh, guess I am done with sugar. 

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6 minutes ago, confussed said:

you could be cited for a misdemeanor.  What is the penalty of a misdemeanor ?   

 

Supposedly it is a $1000 fine. Not sure if that is true.

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Looks like a total stupid boondoggle.   I can get their seal, go fish mille lacs, and then go launch in one of their lakes with full live wells and a bunch of water sloshing in the bilge and be perfectly legal so far as the AIS inspection is concerned.  

 

Yeah, plot to discourage the outsiders from playing on "their" lakes.   

 

Post is still probably in the wrong place.  

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

I emailed these 5 individuals as well on Friday.   No response yet.

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I emailed them too.

This proposal is an absolutely terrible precedent...

 

The lake is "sick" but instead of trying to clean/sterilize those coming out of the lake, the idea is to limit ONLY those who need to park in the public lot at the boat access while utilizing the lake...

 

In comparison, If I happen to be sick with the flu, the standard practice would be to try to limit my exposing others (i.e. put a mask on me...)--not to force only those I don't like to wear masks...

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
12 hours ago, delcecchi said:

Looks like a total stupid boondoggle.   I can get their seal, go fish mille lacs, and then go launch in one of their lakes with full live wells and a bunch of water sloshing in the bilge and be perfectly legal so far as the AIS inspection is concerned.  

 

Yeah, plot to discourage the outsiders from playing on "their" lakes.   

 

Post is still probably in the wrong place.  

how can you launch in wright county after your seal is broken on mille leacs?

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1 hour ago, eyeguy 54 said:
13 hours ago, delcecchi said:

Looks like a total stupid boondoggle.   I can get their seal, go fish mille lacs, and then go launch in one of their lakes with full live wells and a bunch of water sloshing in the bilge and be perfectly legal so far as the AIS inspection is concerned.  

 

Yeah, plot to discourage the outsiders from playing on "their" lakes.   

 

Post is still probably in the wrong place.  

how can you launch in wright county after your seal is broken on mille leacs?

Because Mille Lacs does not have a seal/tag (yet), so you could get inspected, get a seal, go to Mille Lacs or any other lake and leave with the seal intact and then go to a restricted lake with an unbroken seal. They will probably be time stamped, but it is a possible scenario. This whole thing will do nothing but restrict access.

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4 hours ago, eyeguy 54 said:

how can you launch in wright county after your seal is broken on mille leacs?

 

OK pick another lake with zeebs ...  How about Minnetonka?

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
2 hours ago, delcecchi said:

 

OK pick another lake with zeebs ...  How about Minnetonka?

 

not referring to a particular lake.  I thought you get inspected and the seal is broken when you hit whatever lake, then you have to do the process again since seal is broken and you cant get on wright lakes with out it. ? maybe I read it wrong

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You get the seal and drive away.   Who will break the seal at minnetonka or Mille Lacs or White Bear or Osakis or whatever?   This is the first I heard of this seal business.  I would certainly be interested in how it is supposed to work.   

 

I can imagine how something like this would possibly work but it would need to be a statewide thing, or even multi state.   

 

Right now, I go to the cleaning station and get inspected and get the seal.    Sometime later I show up at an access and they look at my seal to see if I am allowed to launch.   Is that how it works?    Does the seal have a timestamp?   Is the seal where my boat connects to the trailer, so launching boat automatically breaks it?   Somebody has to break it?  

 

So many questions.... And it isn't even a lake where I go....

 

 

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I don't want nobody "breaking the seal" in my lake--use your empty Mountain Dew bottle  ?


(But seriously, I hope the DNR isn't so blinded by the AIS lingo in proposal that they don't seen how blatantly and dramatically it will decrease access...   Furthermore, I can't believe every lake-association isn't watching this intently;  ready to file their own versions as soon as they see what the outcome is...)

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
1 hour ago, delcecchi said:

You get the seal and drive away.   Who will break the seal at minnetonka or Mille Lacs or White Bear or Osakis or whatever?   This is the first I heard of this seal business.  I would certainly be interested in how it is supposed to work.   

 

I can imagine how something like this would possibly work but it would need to be a statewide thing, or even multi state.   

 

Right now, I go to the cleaning station and get inspected and get the seal.    Sometime later I show up at an access and they look at my seal to see if I am allowed to launch.   Is that how it works?    Does the seal have a timestamp?   Is the seal where my boat connects to the trailer, so launching boat automatically breaks it?   Somebody has to break it?  

 

So many questions.... And it isn't even a lake where I go....

 

 

7

the seal breaks when you unload boat from pic that I see. its hooked from front of boat to trailer.  unload once and seal is broke 

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

This is becoming out of hand an totally asinine!  ?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here is a link to the latest on The Wright County AIS program. 
http://www.co.wright.mn.us/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1057
It is dead for now. They may try to spin this in the future, so watch for other clever ways they will try to privatize the lakes. 
See the full board discussion in the video replay, the boat inspection topic starts at 1:49:50 

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Well, the fight isn't over.  They put a late addition amendment on the bill SF 2314 to circumvent the DNR's ruling on the Wright County Regional Inspection Program.  Please see attachment below. 

 

This passed through the Senate and now on to the House of Representatives.  Please reach out to your District Representative if you oppose and voice your concern.  This is setting a dangerous state wide precedent to lobby around the Department of Natural Resources and surely will put all of our public water at risk.  

 

Now is the time to act!

Wright County Amendment.jpg

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