fisher16
08-15-2006, 04:18 PM
Fighting for your right to fish "Private property' takes on new meaning for anglers and boaters as they struggle against growing threats to public access nationwide
By Deborah Weisberg
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>Of all the factors that affect the quality of fishing — including declining habitat, invasive species and vegetation management — the loss of access to what used to be public waters is becoming the most ominous, according to BASS Conservation Director Noreen Clough.
"In south Louisiana, property owners are building gates so anglers can't get to the backwater for bass," said Clough of a phenomenon seen elsewhere, including Conneaut Lake, a glacial gem that has produced four Pennsylvania state records for muskie and white bass.
"[Private property owners are] claiming noise and pollution from boats to try to keep anglers out. Or they say lures are catching on underwater electric cables. The rationale is often bizarre. But it's the same bottom line."
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width=4><SPACER type="block" width="3" height="1"></TD><TD><!--“--></TD><TD width=175>"It used to be you'd knock on a farmer's door and ask permission to fish or hunt and he'd usually say OK. But there's been this cultural change toward intolerance."<!-- ”--></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD width=4><SPACER type="block" width="3" height="1"></TD><TD></TD><TD width=175>— Terry Riley, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Nationwide, recreational anglers are being squeezed onto less and less water, said Terry Riley of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), a coalition of sportsmen's groups, including BASS. The TRCP is working to improve access through legislation and easement purchases. "People are scouring the Internet for new places to fish … where it isn't so crowded that it's not a quality experience anymore," said Riley.
Sprawl is a big reason anglers have lost fishing access, especially in the eastern United States where most land is private, he said. What hasn't been turned into shopping malls has been subdivided and sold for housing development.
"It used to be you'd knock on a farmer's door and ask permission to fish or hunt and he'd usually say OK," Riley said. "But there's been this cultural change toward intolerance."
New landowners are posting property in record numbers, for their own enjoyment or to make money off natural resources, he said. "Texas has gone wholesale in that regard. It's getting closer and closer all the time to essentially selling the animal. That isn't the American way."
While riparian land laws are typically clear, those governing water and submerged land use often are murky and vary from state to state, sometimes even when they involve the same waterway. "On the Missouri River in Iowa, the public owns to the high water mark but none of the streambed. In Nebraska, next door, the property owner owns half the streambed," said Riley. "In some states, you can float the water but not anchor or touch bottom. Or you can float but not fish."
Impoundments are typically subject to state-specific navigability laws that precede the damming of the waterway, said Riley, while dock owners present other problems.
During practice week for the CITGO Bassmaster Classic in Pittsburgh last year, boat club owners on the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers tried to run BASS pro Marty Stone off the water around their docks, although both waterways are major commercial venues and clearly navigable.
Where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has no jurisdiction, water and submerged land use rights are often so open to interpretation that it sometimes takes a lawsuit to settle conflicts. Such is the case in Pennsylvania, where the Commonwealth, two state agencies and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission are suing a landowner and a private fishing club for trying to keep anglers off a 1.3 mile section of the Little Juniata River, a coveted trout and smallmouth bass fishery in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The suit, scheduled for trial in Huntingdon County court in June, follows 14 years of on-the-water clashes between club operators and the public.
Sometimes, even efforts to change state law fail to resolve access issues. On Pymatuning Reservoir, a 17,088-acre lake jointly managed by Pennsylvania and Ohio, landowners on the Ohio side have succeeded in stonewalling increased horsepower limits that Pennsylvania legislators approved years ago. While most of the lake is located in Pennsylvania, boaters are still limited to 9.9-hp motors because Ohio lawmakers are bowing to landowner pressure.
But, while public-private disputes are on the rise, legal battles remain a last resort for many, given their cost and uncertain outcome.
Individual fishermen aren't going to launch expensive lawsuits when there are other places to go to fish," said R. Timothy Weston, a water rights attorney in the Harrisburg, Pa., office of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham. "Water use laws are so highly controversial, fishing communities feel better off working with landowners than trying to overhaul water rights. I've observed conservation groups that try to work with landowners are more successful."
Typically, that involves buying conservation or recreation easements through some mix of public and private funds. The TRCP works with states that dedicate a portion of revenue from fishing licenses or tax money to purchase access to waterways. The $20 million Open Fields legislation it has lobbied to have included in the current Farm Bill would make additional money available to states to secure recreation easements. The Trust for Public Land and other groups use private dollars to buy conservation easements, which also could benefit sportsmen.
In the meantime, individual anglers appear increasingly willing to "pay to play."
Census data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that, although the number of anglers declined by 4 percent from 1991 to 2001, property purchases for fishing more than tripled, with people paying $500 million for land — an increase of 17 percent. The number of people paying property owners for access to private water also increased, and cost them 27 percent more than in previous decades.
Chris Horton, BASS associate director of conservation, says anglers need to put their mouths where their money is.
"They do have leverage. I tell them, 'If you're not in a Federation, join one. If you're in one, get active," said Horton, who recently represented BASS at a meeting at Table Rock Lake, in Arkansas, regarding the entire White River Chain of Lakes, where marina operators are attempting to keep anglers out by claiming, among other things, that spinnerbaits are damaging underwater cables.
"If they win, who's to say landowners won't be next with, 'Gee, I'd like to have the 150 yards around my house as my own private swimming area.' Anglers should pay attention or before they know it, they'll be limited to the middle of the lake."
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
By Deborah Weisberg
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>Of all the factors that affect the quality of fishing — including declining habitat, invasive species and vegetation management — the loss of access to what used to be public waters is becoming the most ominous, according to BASS Conservation Director Noreen Clough.
"In south Louisiana, property owners are building gates so anglers can't get to the backwater for bass," said Clough of a phenomenon seen elsewhere, including Conneaut Lake, a glacial gem that has produced four Pennsylvania state records for muskie and white bass.
"[Private property owners are] claiming noise and pollution from boats to try to keep anglers out. Or they say lures are catching on underwater electric cables. The rationale is often bizarre. But it's the same bottom line."
<!-- here is the code for the breakout quotes-->
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width=4><SPACER type="block" width="3" height="1"></TD><TD><!--“--></TD><TD width=175>"It used to be you'd knock on a farmer's door and ask permission to fish or hunt and he'd usually say OK. But there's been this cultural change toward intolerance."<!-- ”--></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD width=4><SPACER type="block" width="3" height="1"></TD><TD></TD><TD width=175>— Terry Riley, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Nationwide, recreational anglers are being squeezed onto less and less water, said Terry Riley of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), a coalition of sportsmen's groups, including BASS. The TRCP is working to improve access through legislation and easement purchases. "People are scouring the Internet for new places to fish … where it isn't so crowded that it's not a quality experience anymore," said Riley.
Sprawl is a big reason anglers have lost fishing access, especially in the eastern United States where most land is private, he said. What hasn't been turned into shopping malls has been subdivided and sold for housing development.
"It used to be you'd knock on a farmer's door and ask permission to fish or hunt and he'd usually say OK," Riley said. "But there's been this cultural change toward intolerance."
New landowners are posting property in record numbers, for their own enjoyment or to make money off natural resources, he said. "Texas has gone wholesale in that regard. It's getting closer and closer all the time to essentially selling the animal. That isn't the American way."
While riparian land laws are typically clear, those governing water and submerged land use often are murky and vary from state to state, sometimes even when they involve the same waterway. "On the Missouri River in Iowa, the public owns to the high water mark but none of the streambed. In Nebraska, next door, the property owner owns half the streambed," said Riley. "In some states, you can float the water but not anchor or touch bottom. Or you can float but not fish."
Impoundments are typically subject to state-specific navigability laws that precede the damming of the waterway, said Riley, while dock owners present other problems.
During practice week for the CITGO Bassmaster Classic in Pittsburgh last year, boat club owners on the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers tried to run BASS pro Marty Stone off the water around their docks, although both waterways are major commercial venues and clearly navigable.
Where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has no jurisdiction, water and submerged land use rights are often so open to interpretation that it sometimes takes a lawsuit to settle conflicts. Such is the case in Pennsylvania, where the Commonwealth, two state agencies and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission are suing a landowner and a private fishing club for trying to keep anglers off a 1.3 mile section of the Little Juniata River, a coveted trout and smallmouth bass fishery in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The suit, scheduled for trial in Huntingdon County court in June, follows 14 years of on-the-water clashes between club operators and the public.
Sometimes, even efforts to change state law fail to resolve access issues. On Pymatuning Reservoir, a 17,088-acre lake jointly managed by Pennsylvania and Ohio, landowners on the Ohio side have succeeded in stonewalling increased horsepower limits that Pennsylvania legislators approved years ago. While most of the lake is located in Pennsylvania, boaters are still limited to 9.9-hp motors because Ohio lawmakers are bowing to landowner pressure.
But, while public-private disputes are on the rise, legal battles remain a last resort for many, given their cost and uncertain outcome.
Individual fishermen aren't going to launch expensive lawsuits when there are other places to go to fish," said R. Timothy Weston, a water rights attorney in the Harrisburg, Pa., office of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham. "Water use laws are so highly controversial, fishing communities feel better off working with landowners than trying to overhaul water rights. I've observed conservation groups that try to work with landowners are more successful."
Typically, that involves buying conservation or recreation easements through some mix of public and private funds. The TRCP works with states that dedicate a portion of revenue from fishing licenses or tax money to purchase access to waterways. The $20 million Open Fields legislation it has lobbied to have included in the current Farm Bill would make additional money available to states to secure recreation easements. The Trust for Public Land and other groups use private dollars to buy conservation easements, which also could benefit sportsmen.
In the meantime, individual anglers appear increasingly willing to "pay to play."
Census data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that, although the number of anglers declined by 4 percent from 1991 to 2001, property purchases for fishing more than tripled, with people paying $500 million for land — an increase of 17 percent. The number of people paying property owners for access to private water also increased, and cost them 27 percent more than in previous decades.
Chris Horton, BASS associate director of conservation, says anglers need to put their mouths where their money is.
"They do have leverage. I tell them, 'If you're not in a Federation, join one. If you're in one, get active," said Horton, who recently represented BASS at a meeting at Table Rock Lake, in Arkansas, regarding the entire White River Chain of Lakes, where marina operators are attempting to keep anglers out by claiming, among other things, that spinnerbaits are damaging underwater cables.
"If they win, who's to say landowners won't be next with, 'Gee, I'd like to have the 150 yards around my house as my own private swimming area.' Anglers should pay attention or before they know it, they'll be limited to the middle of the lake."
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>