FAIRLEE — Since he started going to Camp Billings in the 1990s, Sean Collins, now the summer camp’s director, has seen Lake Fairlee change in many ways.

“I’m glad the bald eagles are taking over. There are loons every day,” Collins said. “But I’m also seeing campers getting knocked out of canoes with my own eyes. I’ve never seen that before, until the past couple of years.”

Driving the change on Lake Fairlee, Collins said, are wake boats that create larger than normal waves. Wake boats use a ballast tank to generate larger waves, or wake, for water sports.

After a years-long battle, state rules regulating the use of wake boats on inland lakes in Vermont went into effect in April. On the 460-acre Lake Fairlee, the ruling established a roughly 96-acre “wakesports zone” where the boats are permitted to operate in wake sports-mode and tow surfers behind them.

Before the new rules went into effect, wake sports were permitted much more broadly, falling into the same category as other water sports, leading to concern from activists in the state rule-making process.

The Lake Fairlee Association filed a petition on April 18, three days after the rules went into effect. The group is one of nine Vermont lake associations that has petitioned state Department of Environmental Conservation to ban wake sports on their respective lakes.

Collins was one of several users of Lake Fairlee who spoke at an environment conservation department meeting in Montpelier, where public comments were reviewed. (Written comments can be submitted to ANR.WSMDLakes@Vermont.gov until 4:30 p.m. on Monday.The subject line should include the word “wakesports” and reference Lake Fairlee, specifically.)

At last week’s meeting, most of the speakers addressing Lake Fairlee supported the Lake Fairlee Association’s petition. Only a few speakers, all of whom said they own a wake boat or participate in wake sports on the lake, asked that the petition be rejected.

While ideal for surfing behind the specialized motorboats, petitioners argue that the waves also capsize small boats, overwhelming swimmers and reduce the amount of lake area that others can safely use. Wake boats are more dangerous than other motorboats because, in addition to the over-sized wake, drivers sit at a higher angle, making it more difficult for them to see other lake users, petitioners said.

“You can hear them coming before you can see them, so sometimes you get a warning. But that warning is often terrifying to young children who maybe come from the inner city… and have never swam before and are terrified of the lake. And here you have kids who might never swim again because that one time they tried, they were suffering,” Collins said.

Lake Fairlee is home to five summer camps. In comparison, the 313,000-acre Lake Champlain hosts six summer camps on its Vermont side and five on the New York side, according to the American Camp Association.

“Allowing wake sports near multiple summer camps and a public boat ramp is not a good idea; the large waves create a hostile environment for anyone, especially young, inexperienced campers trying to learn and enjoy traditional, normal water sports,” Katherine Babbott, a Thetford Center resident and Lake Fairlee Association board member, said.

The petition was supported by the five summer camps, as well as the Thetford, Fairlee and West Fairlee selectboards, multiple conservation commissions and the owner of Fairlee Marine, a local boat seller.

The Fairlee store sells many types of boats, but they deliberately do not sell wakeboats because they are not appropriate for the lake and its many camps, owner Robert Bartlett said in a written comment shared at the meeting.

“In my mind, it is just not acceptable or fair to allow the very few wake surfers to create disruptive and potentially dangerous conditions on historically peaceful waters,” Bartlett wrote.

Not all comments focused on the summer camps. Speakers told stories of having to pull children and small dogs out of the water when they saw over-sized waves approaching shore and having to stop some of their favorite activities on the lake, such as long-distance swimming, for fear of the boats.

Lucian Snow, a member of the Lake Fairlee Association whose family has owned a home on the lake for 18 years, recalled a pontoon-boat ride three years ago when surf from a passing wake boat “swamped the boat from bow to stern.”

“The scariest part of the experience was for the 95-year-old man in the bow who was soaked up to his knees,” Snow said. “We were fortunate enough not to have infants or small children on the boat.”

The timing of the petition, submitted in April before the boating season began, drew some skepticism at the meeting. A representative of the wake sports industry and a Lake Fairlee user argued that petitioners did not attempt to use the lake with the new regulations before requesting stricter rules.

The petition “allowed for no time to measure and determine new rules placed,” said Amy McLaughlin, who owns property and a wake boat on Lake Fairlee.

McLaughlin, a member of the Lake Fairlee Association, said that she and two other members were not informed of or able to vote on whether to submit the petition in advance.

Another opponent, Emily Doe, criticized some speakers for using “scare tactics” to push the petition and said that the existing ruling is sufficient to protect users and the lake.

“I have two children who go to the camps, and I feel incredibly safe with my children on the lake,” Doe said. “And, I am a sailor, I am a sailboat racer, I am a paddle boarder, I am a kayaker and I am a swimmer. I am also a wake boarder and I like to wake surf. I do every single one of those activities happily and safely on the lake.”

The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation’s Lakes Regulation, Restoration and Planning Division will review public comment and petition details after public comment closes next week. Early next year, the division is scheduled to submit recommendations to the department’s commissioner, who will then decide whether to move forward with any of the petitions.

Clare Shanahan can be reached at cshanahan@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.