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Certifying watercraft as being free from Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) inside The Blue Line has only been the Law since June of 2022. There is a boatload (bad pun intended) of confusion surrounding this new-ish regulation. As AWI’s Regional Supervisor in our area for the DEC’s AIS spread prevention program, I have been working on clarifying the status of our Flow as it relates to this new-ish Law.
Par for the course, the GFA's Bunch Of Dinosaurs continue to immaturely ignore me, and to put out misinformation. The childishness is completely their fault, but the lack of understanding is only partially their fault. It is my duty and pleasure to inform all FFLO’s regarding what the Law actually is.
Today, I received formal verification from the DEC of the following:
It does not matter if your boat is only used in our Flow and nowhere else – if it has a motor, it must be certified as free of AIS.
It does not matter that our Flow is a private lake. Every motorized vessel on our Flow is required to be certified as free of AIS.
Non-motorized vessels, for now, remain exempt from certification, but certification is still strongly encouraged.
If someone really wants to read the wordy legislation, pls let me know and I will post it. The certification requirement boils down to the fact that our Flow is both fed from and discharges into public waterbodies (Shadow Pond / West Branch of the Goodnow River to the West, and the East Branch of the Goodnow River / Hudson River to the East), meaning that certification is therefore required despite our Flow being a private lake. It’s up to a $1,000 fine when you get caught on our Flow or other ADK waterbody without a certificate.
As I have said in the past, our Flow is not a sovereign nation. Being private does not make our Flow exempt from relevant local, state, and federal legislation (many FFLO's are going to be surprised by how this fact will soon be confirmed by the courts) - regardless of how much some semi-fascist dinosaurs might want it to be. I tried for nearly a decade to patiently guide the Bunch Of Dinosaurs which we are only temporarily burdened with into genuinely serving all FFLO's as they already falsely claim to do. It's not my fault that intervention by outside authorities is now required to rein in their rampant and baselessly arrogant ineptitude. The DEC and other policing bodies are taking AIS certification seriously in 2023, as they should, and do have plans for enforcement. I refuse to dishonourably use my professional relationships to encourage any LEO's to turn a blind eye to our Flow. Get Certified. You and your wallet will be glad you did, and so will our Flow and the many generations hopefully coming after us.