You actually may be more right than you realize.
Does that stream run into a watershed? If so, that stream is owned by the EPA. Along with 300 foot greenway out from the waterline.
Because that was the criteria that was used on the Henshaws.
We have the bid contract and the presentation that was used on the Henshaws. It was the EPA, not disease. The disease was a front.
Not so sure about a watershed, but it feeds a river which feeds another river, which feeds another river which feeds the Monongahela River, which is navigable...thus USACE permission is needed to do any work in my stream. By rights, I can’t even clear debris which causes daming without their permission. Needless to say, I ignore that when a choke point becomes clogged with branches etc, but in doing so, I break the law.
Then we get into the mess of what the Gov’t. considers ‘wetlands’. Around here it seems that any puddle that forms during a rain constitutes ‘wetlands’!