According to my plat I own to the half way point of the river. I often wonder if somebody drowns in the river in front of my house would I be held accountable.
During the summer weekends I see over 50 canoes, rafts and inner tubes pass by the house.
These numbers are growing, a lot of Yankess are moving to here from up North. The major issue we run into here is people wanting access to the river from our property. Another issue is people leaving their trash in the river.
We sent them away to the public access points mainly for parking issues and property insurance reasons.
The public access points are there because they do not have the right to trespass on your property. They do have the right to use the water and pass through your property.
The access points have been there for a long time and the reason is that for a long time it has been expected and lawful for the public to use the water that passes through your land. The access points were not established just because land owners agreed to allow passage.
It is really stupid that this is debated since the notion of private water has been struck down so many times in test cases involving recreational float traffic.