Overnight Kayak and fish

[Al Agnew]

On 9/30/2019 at 12:46 PM, mojorig said:

Yes that court case was documented in the court case, I attached:

"It has been widely assumed that the Mcilroy Court affected title to the property of W.L. Mcilroy and his brother's estate by redefining "navigability" over 150 years after
Statehood and after property rights had vested. In fact, following the decision, the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas voted to relinquish and quitclaim title to the
creek bed back to the property owners, Act 872 of 1981, saying: " ... the Arkansas Supreme Court in holding the Mulberry River to be navigable seriously impaired the oil and gas leases, farming leases, and the sale of property along the Mulberry River; that the boundary lines of property owners have been materially affected in that they now cannot be determined without additional court action ... " A careful reading of the opinion reveals, however, that the Court avoided the issue of bed ownership and gave no indication that it intended to affect title to the bed of Mulberry Creek. At least the authorities cited in the case suggests that conclusion."

So like I said, things can get really muddy.  My understanding, and the opinion of most "authorities cited in the case" is that the Mulberry case did NOT affect stream bed ownership.  It did affect the absolute control of creek bottoms and gravel bars.  The legislature afterwards, bowing to the pressure from property rights people, actually muddied things up worse by saying that it put the whole ownership thing in question.

What really worries me is in the political climate of today in both Missouri and Arkansas, we can only end up losing access and use rights to Ozark streams.  These streams have been used for floating, fishing and most importantly gravel bar camping and picnicking for well over a hundred years.  It's as traditional a use as it gets.  Any landowner on an Ozark stream SHOULD understand and accept that the public has some rights to the use of the river and gravel bars, and that he will have to deal with the public...and I say that as a river landowner myself in two different states.  But large, influential landowners are continually trying to get that tradition use abolished instead of living with it, and there are a lot of legislators that are on their side.