This is one of the most alarming news pieces I have seen in a long time. It has been well known for eons that if you buy property on a free flowing stream / river you don’t own that water. The sense of being navigable does not mean that it must be suitable for commercial barge traffic or anything even closely resembling that. You may prohibit anyone from stepping on the shore but you can’t stop them from being in the water and passing through. The issue of trespass on the shore and littering has been a long standing problem on streams around here and in the Texas hill country.
The Barron Fork is one such stream that has regular float, canoe and kayak traffic. If you buy property along the stream it is understood that you will have all manner of floaters passing through your property in the summer. You can keep them off the shore but you can’t stop their passage. When you buy a piece of property you accept those terms if you improve the habitat or not and these people who are raising this rucus and building fences should be smart enough to know what they have done is at risk of public use. Tough crackers.
I considered such a piece of land and because I did not want the constant parade of summer floaters and the inherent liability of them trespassing I did not buy it since I could not legally control it. I own a place with a small creek on it and I control that legally because it is not passable without walking on my land. If it were floatable I’d be out of luck.
What is taking place here is wealthy, well connected whiners in New Mexico commandeering the law for their benefit. It is simply wrong.
There are some places with very small streams that are “private” water owing to the fact that you simply can’t traverse them without getting on the land. Some of the fishing in these locations is great and i have paid very good money for the opportunity to fish them without begrudging the control of the owner. It is his right. Blocking streams like the Pecos and the Barron Fork is not permitted.
Texas recognizes that a navigational steam may be dry at times. You can boat, swim, float, walk, wade, picnic, camp, etc up most ‘streams’.
Only true in some states.
It's still a states' rights issue. My state supreme court decided some years ago that on NAVIGABLE waters the public has the right-of-way up to the high water mark.
I know of one state not quite buying it: Wyoming