[Waterbaby]

Originally Posted by kauriel

A waterfront tax would place burden on those less likely to be introducing and spreading milfoil, particularly for those who do not have a boat! Milfoil is often spread by boats, particularly boats that go into multiple bodies of water.

It would seem the solution would be to include a small fee in boat registration (for all boats) and to charge another small fee every time a boat is launched at a public or semi-private boat launch (meaning campgrounds and other facilities that charge fees for boat launching). Adding an additional launch fee might even reduce the number of launches and thus slow the spread of milfoil!

I like your solution; my boat has never been out of Winni, it "lives" at Paugus Bay Marina; I don't even have a trailer for it. When I did trailer the previous boat it was always to Winni, so there was no danger of my boat bringing in milfoil from another lake or pond, either.

As far as waterfront owners being less likely to be spreading milfoil, I have mixed feelings on that one. The way I understand it, and I admit I could be totally off base on this one, eroded water quality also contributes to the milfoil problem and those chemicals making those golf-course lawns so pretty feed into the water and erode the quality of that same water.... and nobody will every convince me the "chemical free" stuff used by some of those lawn companies is really, always, chemical free.