A Usenet persona calling itself Melissa wrote:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: RIPEMD160

Hi Wilf,

On 11 Mar 2005 16:02:48 -0800, you quoted:

"Owners of shoreline property in British Columbia should be aware
that most aquatic land is owned by the province and managed by Land
and Water British Columbia Inc."

Here's something interesting to ponder with regards to US federal
rights of access:

http://www.nationalrivers.org/states...nu.htm#law.htm

The first five or six paragraphs seem to recognize a pretty liberal
definition of public access (specifically with regards to "rivers",
regardless of size).




This is very instructive as well (I think Scott might really dislike
this one):

http://www.nationalrivers.org/us-law-facts.htm

Yah, I've seen them all. Problem is, they don't know what they are talking
about. They have their political agenda and they post information that suits
that agenda. Unfortunately for them, the law is rather different,
particularly here in Colorado.

Even the mention of access laws and practice in Colorado is
interesting in the American Whitewater writeup, though there seem to
be some pretty stark contrasts/conflicts with the federal law as
stated in the National Rivers links above:

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/ac...reports/CO.htm

Yup, quite a contrast indeed. Fact is however that I've got a Colorado
Supreme Court ruling that says there is no public right to float through
private property on non navigable streams that hasn't been overturned by the
SCOTUS. So, for now, that's the ruling law in Colorado. All the debate is
about what the legislature tried to do and whether in so doing they violated
my property rights and the property rights of ever stream owner in Colorado
and how much money the state owes landowners for illegally appropriating a
right of way through their property.

The only question that remains is whether Boulder Creek through my property
is a "navigable water of the United States." Trust me, it's not.

--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser