Boat Forum / Paddle Boats / June 2009

"riverman" <myronbuck@yahoo.com> wrote in message
On May 17, 12:49 pm, "Bob Noble" <bno...@sonic.net> wrote:

Hey Bob, check this out:

http://c2.com/kaweah/riverlaw.html

"No individual, partnership, or corporation, claiming or possessing
the frontage or tidal lands of a harbor, bay, inlet, estuary, or other
navigable water in this State, shall be permitted to exclude the right
of way to such water whenever it is required for any public purpose,
nor to destroy or obstruct the free navigation of such water; and the
Legislature shall enact such laws as will give the most liberal
construction to this provision, so that access to the navigable waters
of this State shall be always attainable for the people thereof."

Seems pretty clear to me. Ask a lawyer to look into it.

--riverman

Hi RiverMan,
Good stuff.
I came on here just now to say that what I thought of on the river today,
cause that's where I do most of my thinking. I think that is a lot of what a
waterway is about.
Anyway, I was thinking that if we can only access the water though public
access or private permission, that begs the question, that there must be
laws that state there has to be public access, or one wouldn't be able to
get in and out of a town to do one's business.
So, your stuff looks real good. I haven't been to the site yet, but I will.
The towns and cities have a lot of gates on this river and I'd like to see a
lot of them go, so I can go when I want.
Thanks for the info.
I am finding things out.

Hi Larry,
See below for answers.

On May 17, 12:49 am, "Bob Noble" <bno...@sonic.net> wrote:

it ....or is the problem being able to get land access to the river's

It's both, I think.
They keep putting in parks with gates that are sunup till sunset. No access
at night. Is that their right?

Then they run out of money and want to just keep the gate locked.

<<owned... even if the river is "navigable" then it's no dice.

That's likely the case here also. I understand it. I look for solutions that
work for everyone and understand the private land owers thing.
But, if one needs access to a navigatable waterway, then one needs to find
out what the law really says.
If a beach says private property, I go to one that doesn't. Easy. I'm out
there to enjoy myself, not cause trouble.

have a "right" to go across property... they mouth off to the
landowner instead of asking permission and if denied.. to leave.. then
the landowner gets very serious about dealing with public access.

That why one needs to understand the navigations laws, if possible.
I've been paddling the Russian river almost daily for the last six years and
haven't had any property owers problems.
But, there is a place that a county road crosses the river where access to
the public should be, but is not. For some reason politics somehow has
played into this, likely because the private land is owned by a sportsmen's
club. I see we need access to the public here, if for no other reason so
rescue equipment can also get into the area. When the built the new cement
bridge, the moved it upstream, right next to the old bridge. The new bridge
is on private property, but I'm still trying to find out if the county or
state owns where the old bridge was, so we can punch a road though the trees
to get access. I'm trying to skirt the private property.
If that doesn't work, then I need to apply the navigation laws to get public
access, even it we need to use eminent domain. That's what the navigation
laws are all about, I think.

but you know the property is private.

Me too.

and again to be honest ... when a place is accessed by the
public..unimpeded... more often than not... it is trashed... and then
we have to pay to have it cleaned up....   been there .... done
that.....   in the end.. if I had to choose between totally unfettered
public access and some kind of a "gatekeeper".. I'd take the
latter...  I've just seen too many places totally trashed...

This opinion of yours is what is causing the trouble.
People can find all kinds of excuses to put a gate up and lock themselves
out. This has to stop.

We have lots of people here running yaks and canoes down the river as a
business. Working with them can maintain the cleanup.

Actually, what I find here is people that party, sometimes leave a big mess
after their party, because they are having such a good time.
Most of the time, within a few days, that garbage will disappear.

Now, what I find, the old timers that have lived here from the beginning,
are being governed incorrectly by other people calling meeting in our area.
The say come to the meeting and we'll force what we have for you down your
throat. So, old timers don't go to the meeting, but new timers do and they
want to control everyone. They say, if we don't go to the meetings, what
they are doing is ok. What they should realize, is the old timers are not at
the meetings because they do not approve and they do not want to participate
in this kind of government.

So, since I yak the river and talk to everyone I see that really uses the
river, I seem to be the king pin that ties this river together.
For example, they want to close the mouth of the river all summer, and they
had meetings. I didn't go of course, nor did most of the other old timers.

So, because I use the river to think and my thinker is way above normal, I
realized this is all bullshit.
So, I wrote a letter about all this and I asked them to send it to whomever
they think might be interested. But during this time, I met the biologists
on the river that no one would talk to and they did wave or smile at anyone
on the river, even me when I saw them on the high waters in the winter and I
and them were the only ones on the river.

So, since I go up and down the river, I decided to help make their job
easier by convincing people on the river, that are old timers to talk to
them in a friendly way, so the biologists can get some valuable information
about the river, especially, it's history.

So, I also noted that what they call Waddles are polluting the river and
ocean. Waddles are the little hay filled rolls they use to stop erosion. I'm
at the bottom of the river and I realize they have loaded the whole pipe
line with them and not just in this state.

So, when the state came down on me for fixing my neighbors fire roads for
access and fire protection, I told the state guy about them and said to keep
my name out of it. Haven't heard anything about that yet, but you sure will.

So, I put the letter on hold and decided to practice another method, which
is working with the biologists at the source and not at the meeting where
all the new timers go that just argue about every thing and just cost
millions of dollars in the planning and then there is no money to do the
project that they've screwed up by now anyway.

So, I caught up with them on the river yesterday. I had to paddle four miles
to do that and back after. They had access at the spot I'm talking about and
I didn't. I let them know that I wanted medical rescue equipment to get in
here and the hardest part about doing anything about getting this access,
was staying out of the political mess. As I left they had a truck stuck in
the gravel pulling their boat out. Stuff happens when you boat. So, I used
this to talk to them about access there. I left them with ,I'm trying to get
access without getting into the political mess and now had to paddle all the
way back up the river.
They wished me a happy paddle.
So, it's a start and people should realize they are getting locked out
everywhere by people that believe this is the way to go.
So, let's stop all the excuses and get on with it. I'm sick of finding
locked gates all over the west where I use to go freely.
An old timer,