Why doesn the Game and Fish Department pay for opening up access to lakes in the winter when they become drifted shut?
With more than 300 water bodies and likely more than 1,000 access sites to these water bodies during the ice fishing season, it simply is unrealistic for the Department or even the state to reopen these sites after every wind storm.The Department has estimated that in winters tougher than normal it would literally take several million dollars to try and keep up with the snow drifts and that calculation is based on only 450 access sites. After just one ‘big blow’, it literally would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to open up all access and only to have them all blow shut a few days later.It would be wasteful spending.
