Boating Permits/Stickers

As many of you know Idaho, Washington, Montana and pretty much every other state in the union require boats to have Aquatic Invasive Species stickers displayed on ones watercraft whether motorized, human powered, or sail powered only. If your boat is registered in the state you live in then the registration sticker is your invasive species sticker (that is if your boat is required to be registered, if not then you must have a stick on your boat). If you leave your state and boat in another state then one must have the sticker on their boat of that state. Yes it's annoying because if you are like me, I boat regularly in about 4 states other than my own. So I have 5 stickers on my freaking boat. 

Here are the links to each states Aquatic Invasive Species website so you can find out what you need before boating in these states...

Idaho
Washington
Montana
Oregon

I might add on top of this sticker fees there are also boat launch fees. I can see why there is a growing trend among boaters to boat in their own state, especially those on a fixed income, etc. I do agree its getting a little bit out of control cost wise. If you are an outdoors person there are also fees to use parks and trails, etc. There may come a time when as a group of outdoors enthusiasts we will need to get together and rein in the bureaucracy.

In a future article I will be doing research about how these states Aquatic Invasive Species programs are doing, are they accomplishing anything or is it just another way for governments/agencies to suck more money out of us. Seems like we can no longer do anything outdoors without there being a fee. Is this fact affecting outdoor activity, are people just staying home? Is outdoors recreation becoming just for the rich? On the outside someone might think the fees are not that much, but if you are accessing several states, between sticker fees, launch fees, camping fees, not to mention the cost to drive to various sites, it adds up rather quickly. So stay tuned as my article about all this is coming soon.