Who owns water? The US landowners putting barbed wire across rivers

UK Guardian ^ | March 15, 2018 | Cassidy Randall

[C19fan]

As Scott Carpenter and a few friends paddled down the Pecos river in New Mexico last May, taking advantage of spring run-off, the lead boater yelled out and made a swirling hand motion over his head in the universal signal to pull over to shore. The paddlers eddied out in time to avoid running straight through three strings of barbed wire obstructing the river.

Swinging in the wind, the sign hanging from the fence read “PRIVATE PROPERTY: No Trespassing”.

Sign up for This Land is Your Land, our monthly email on public lands Read more One member of their party waded into the swift water to lift the wire with a paddle for the others to float under. As they continued downstream, Carpenter, a recreational boater from Albuquerque, looked over his shoulder a see a figure standing outside the big ranch house up the hill. He offered a wave, but received nothing in return.

[cyclotic]

There’s a river near us that has a small dam. We take the boats out a portage across the dam. The portage is on private property.

There are some No Trespassing signs nailed to a tree.

Once when we were there, the property caretaker came by. He said the No Trespassing signs were for the rope swing and that people were free to portage. By law, he has to allow that.

We had a very pleasant conversation.

[editor-surveyor]

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>> “I have ponds, and a seasonal creek on my property.” <<

Ditto. We have four ponds at our ranch, all of which are at various points along a small seasonal creek, and serve as energy dissipators and to recharge the ground water for the wells.

Fortunately Trump gave orders to undo Obama’s attack on property rights. Now he needs to remove “motorized travel restrictions” in the National Forests. The Obama administration allowed the forests to die in California.

Forests need constant harvesting and removal of seedlings to remain healthy.
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[editor-surveyor]

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New Mexico, like all of the western states, is a part of the Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty, which became in effect an addendum to the constitution when it was signed.

The treaty gives those that were on the land a permanent right to the continued use of the land, and restricts government ownership of surface rights to only lands that were not in use. That essentially means only steep mountain land that wasn’t suitable for grazing or agriculture.
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