February 2026: Enhanced Wake Information

Written By Paul Strong

Enhanced Wake Information: Update

We now have the timeline for the Hazelhurst Town Board’s action on the Enhanced Wake Restriction proposal for Lake Katherine. They have scheduled the required public hearing for 5:00 PM on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. Details on how the hearing will be run are forthcoming.  Members will receive an email as we learn more. You can see the legal notice and the proposed ordinance in the upper right hand corner of the Town of Hazlehurst website at:

http://www.hazelwi.net/pg/towninfo

Depending on their deliberations on the information received during the hearing and from written input received beforehand, the Town Board may have a first reading of the proposed ordinance at their April 14, 2026 Town Board meeting and a second reading and vote at the May 12, 2026 Town Board meeting. 

The LKA Board has reviewed the informal survey results.  There are approximately 131 tax parcels that have Lake Katherine frontage (including islands). The Northwoods Land Trust owns 15 of those parcels, which collectively account for more than forty percent of the lake frontage. The Town of Hazelhurst owns one parcel. The State of Wisconsin owns one parcel. The remainder of the parcels are owned by individuals, families, and/or family trusts.

To the best of its ability to match contact information with individual tax parcels, the LKA believes that the owners of at least 95 percent of the tax parcels received a survey.

The survey asked for a Yes or No response regarding a proposed ordinance that would restrict enhanced wakes by prohibiting the operation of a boat in an artificially bow-high manner continuously and having the effect of increasing the boat’s wake and by prohibiting the use of ballast tanks or bags and fins to cause a boat to operate in a bow-high manner. The proposed ordinance would not prohibit wake boats as long as they did not operate in these ways.  

The survey also provided space for comments. To encourage response, the LKA provided self-addressed stamped envelopes (SASE) and indicated that response forms could be returned with self-identification or anonymously. Additionally, the survey allowed family/household members to submit individual responses if they were inclined to do so.

Following is summary information from the surveys.  

Of the 94 returned survey forms, 70 (74%) supported the proposed ordinance; 24 (26%) opposed it. On four forms, additional adult non-spouse family members were listed along with their support or non-support. Seventeen additional names supported the proposed ordinance and four additional names opposed it. Including those in a summary tally would bring the support number to 87 (76%) and 28 (24%).

A summarization of the survey and the individual survey forms will be submitted to the Hazlehurst Town Board in advance of the public hearing.

There is new information out from the Last Wilderness Alliance and Wisconsin Lakes organizations. In mid-January, they issued a press release supporting restrictions on creating and maintaining enhanced wakes (typically created for wake surfing activities) to lake areas with at least 30 feet of water depth. Greater depths are suggested, but thirty feet is a minimum.

Their updated position on depth requirements is based on several factors including the greater downward effects whenever a wake boat starts creating the enhanced wake and considerations of effects not just on lake beds, but also on the rooted aquatic vegetation that grows up from the lake bed, often several feet or more.

More detailed information on the recommendation and its rationale can be found at the Oneida County Lakes and River Association (OCLRA) website at:  https://www.oclra.org/2026/01/22/wisconsin-lakes-and-the-lwa-call-for-urgent-action-to-protect-lakebed-life/

How would a 30-foot minimum lake depth restriction play out on Lake Katherine? A lake survey map produced by the State of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) that can be found on the Internet displays the contours of the lake bed (a bathymetric map).  There is only one place on the lake with 30-foot depth; no other places are deeper. It is just northeast of George and Baby Leigh islands, and is fewer than 500 feet from them and some of the lakeshore to the south and east. The oblong area of contiguous 30-foot depth appears to comprise between five and eight acres, well below the recommendation of at least 50 contiguous acres for wake surfing, which requires enhanced wakes.Thus, under this set of recommendations, there are no places on Lake Katherine for such activities.

Even without these recommendations, enhanced wakes on Lake Katherine continue to threaten the quality of the lake and lake users’ experiences as well as negative effects on docks and shorelines. Use of ballast tanks increases the probability of introduction of new aquatic invasive species that will be difficult if not impossible to control or eradicate. A current lack of any restrictions other than the general statewide restriction on wakes near shoreline areas leaves Lake Katherine open to ongoing damage and threats.

In late January the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board (governing oversight body for the Wisconsin DNR) received a presentation from DNR specialists on the enhanced wake issue including reviews of studies that have been completed. At that meeting, the DNR also indicated that it did not have the authority or ability to regulate and that local Towns should make decisions because every lake has unique circumstances. Two articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on January 29 and February 5 reported on the NRB meeting.

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Resources:

We do not intend to provide an exhaustive list of organizations and web sites on this topic. There is substantial information from Wisconsin as well as many other states that are wrestling with this issue. The following list is a good starting place for ongoing self-education on the topic. We encourage you to conduct your own search for information beyond them as your time and interest allow.

Other entities that advocate for recreational water sports including those that support enhanced wakes have web sites, too.

Paul Strong
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November 2026: Enhanced Wake Information