Wisconsin Administrative Code › Department of Natural Resources › NR 1-99 - Fish, Game and Enforcement, Forestry and Recreation › Chapter NR 1 - Natural Resources Board Policies › Section NR 1.91 - Public boating access standards

Current through June 24, 2024
(1) APPLICABILITY.
				Sections NR 1.91 to 1.93 shall apply to department decisions related to
				acquiring, developing, maintaining and improving public boating access sites,
				providing natural resources enhancement services and to other department
				decisions relating to protection and use of navigable waters. Sections NR 1.91
				to 1.93 do not allow trespass across private lands, change existing trespass
				law nor change navigation laws. Sections NR 1.91 to 1.93 would not apply to
				waterways which are not public navigable waters such as most artificial manmade
				ponds. The rights of riparian owners for singular access to adjacent waterways
				would also be unaffected.
(2)
				DEFINITIONS. As used in ss.
				NR
				1.90 to 1.93, the following definitions apply:
(a) "Abandon", " abandonment",
				"discontinuance" means a permanent or long-term closure of an access site
				whether by resolution, ordinance, signing, placement of a physical barrier or
				by other means that reduces access.
(b) "Access site" means an area of land
				providing public boat access or carry-in access, which provides parking for
				vehicles with or without trailers.
(c) "Carry-in access" means access designed
				only for non-trailered boat launching.
(d) "Natural resources enhancement services"
				means funding or activities that increase the recreational or environmental
				values of a waterway. These services include fish stocking, removal or other
				fish population management, habitat development, financial assistance for
				aquatic plant harvesting and any other services that increase the recreational
				or environmental values of a waterway and are supported with a grant awarded
				under ch. NR 193.
(e) "Open water
				acres" means the water body surface which appears as water predominantly devoid
				of emergent vegetation on recent aerial photographs representative of the
				navigation season. This determination shall be made by the department and shall
				include open water acres on all contiguous waters connected by a channel or
				river commonly navigated by motorized craft.
(f) "Plan" means an alternative boating
				access and waterway protection plan developed by the department or a local unit
				of government pursuant to sub. (6).
(g) "Public access", for purposes of s.
				NR 1.92,
				means any site providing motor vehicle access to ice-bound waters, public
				boating access or carry-in access.
(h) "Public boating access" means any site or
				combination of sites including private sites meeting the provisions of sub. (7)
				at which the general public may gain legal access to a body of water by the
				process of launching a boat.
(i)
				"Reasonable public boating access" means opportunities for public enjoyment and
				use of navigable waters which:
1. Allow
				public rights of navigation and related incidental uses of the water which are
				equal for all,
2. Comply with the
				standards for boating access established in this policy,
3. Are available free or at a reasonable fee
				as determined by standards established in this policy, and
4. Assure that levels and types of waterway
				use by all users do not interfere with public health, safety and
				welfare.
(j) "Reduced"
				means lowering the number of parking units available for public use.
(k) "Resident" means a natural person who
				permanently resides or owns real property within the unit of government
				maintaining or operating the access site.
(l) "Resource protection services" include
				but are not limited to nonpoint pollution control grants, loans for municipal
				sewage treatment facilities, acquisition grants under the urban green space
				program, lake planning grants, lake protection grants and funding for municipal
				boating safety patrols and aids to navigation.
(m) "Season pass" means authorization to use
				boat access facilities provided by the issuing authority when use of the
				facilities are available from January 1 to December 31 of each year.
(n) "Services level" means that level of
				public boating access which meets or exceeds the levels described in sub.
				(4).