Another attack on private property
“But he paddled on for two miles through the private property in the town of Long Lake, spying a deer, a nesting goose and moose scat. He had to carry his canoe for only four minutes to bypass a small rapids.
“Except for the carry, all of the waterways — the pond, the outlet and the brook — were obviously navigable in the everyday sense of the word,”
Except being the key word here. He trespassed plain and simple.
Next step... railroads will have to allow snowmobilers equal access to their private property because railroad right of ways are navigable by sled. Oh wait... that is actually happening.
When a canoe flips they will probably sue the property owner for not keeping the water clear of fallen trees.
The Adirondacks are fantastic. A truly beautiful place.
(Just tossing that opinion in.)
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May be more to this ruling and story than meets the eye, as it pertains to NY / USA recognition of private property rights -
The area is a UN Biosphere preserve...
http://prfamerica.org/conference/13thOnPark.html
” THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON ADIRONDACK “PARK”
Speakers weave a tale of progressive repression and depopulation
By Carol W. LaGrasse
The Thirteenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights focused back to the reason for the founding of the Property Rights Foundation of America, the desiccation of private property rights and the attack on the future of communities in the vast region denoted in 1973 as the “Adirondack Park.” But that was not the heart of the conference. The speeches took the audience, as well as the many speakers themselves as they listened intently to each other, forward through the years and events to a knowledge and understanding of the callous “progress” of wealthy interests and fanatical environmentalists in their never satiated campaigns to make it impossible to work and live in the North Country.
The conference speakers addressed a range of topics from the implementation of UNESCO Biosphere Reserve designation in 1989, to the constant forced attrition of roads and means of access, to the regulatory impositions through the legal process and insidiously through threats and coercion.”
Cheers to him and the court! Waterways are public and it is absurd that property owners get to lock out public. This really is great news and does not infringe upon the private owners, they dry property is still theirs. This is not different that people claiming to own an ocean beach to lock out people walking along the coast.
I moved several years ago to the north side of Adirondacks and was quickly disappointed and happily moved because it is almost all locked off, fenced, and you cannot access and use what is otherwise public property. No different than here in Nevada, which happily is mostly public land, yet some private owners try to block off public access to it so they have private use of the public land. Shame on them.
Good for the courts to take a step to reverse this private grab of public lands.
Of possible interest ping...
Cue banjo music.
Canoes are obsolete....... kayaks are the thing for us modern day paddlers
Figures. Kayaking and paddling are a couple of things that are on the “Stuff White People Like” list (i.e. liberal white people), and therefore, the “rights” of the paddlers and kayakers will overrule the actual rights of the property owners.
We had a similar situation, though on a smaller scale, a few years ago in here in Chapel Hill. There was a field near a main road that goes through town that the SWPL crowd used to walk their dogs in. Problem was, the field was private property, and the owner eventually put up a fence and some No Trespassing signs. Of course, the Chapel Hill SWPL contingent was greatly incensed, and took the guy before the town council, who basically ruled that he had to let the dog walkers use his property for walking their dogs, basically defecating all over it and trampling and destroying the grass. Not sure whatever happened with it after that, except that the SWPL people still walk their dogs there.
He contends that the state did not lawfully decommission or demap these roads leaving them open to motor vehicles. His interest isn't so much in access for trucks as snowmobiles, which are forbidden on these "trails" through "wilderness" areas.
It's interesting as these roads were in use for over a hundred years, well into the age of the automobile. Apparently, they are all over the Adirondacks, and he's researched their history and can't find any record or their being lawfully closed.