Fishing club can't cast public off river
Wednesday, January 31, 2007

By Deborah Weisberg, Special to the Post-Gazette



In a case closely watched by anglers, a Huntingdon County judge has ruled that the operator of a private fishing club cannot block public access to a stretch of the Little Juniata River near Spruce Creek.

The lawsuit had pitted several state agencies and a local fishing guide against Don Beaver, who leases a 1.3-mile portion of the river in Huntingdon County for his Spring Ridge Club. Club members pay tens of thousands of dollars to fish dozens of leased streams in Central Pennsylvania, Erie and Ohio.

The case came down to a dispute over whether that portion of the Little Juniata -- a blue-ribbon trout stream -- was navigable, which, under state law, means the streambed is public.

"It's a very big decree for people who want to maintain access to water they've enjoyed for decades and even centuries, and to protect water from private landowners who might want to take the property for themselves," said Stan Stein, the Pittsburgh-based attorney who is representing the sole individual plaintiff in the commonwealth lawsuit -- fishing guide and Spruce Creek tackle shop owner Allan Bright.

In his 57-page ruling filed Monday, Huntingdon County Common Pleas Judge Stewart Kurtz said that the Little J is navigable. His opinion reached back into history, citing the testimony of local historians at last summer's five-day non-jury trial that the Little J was used for the shipment of whiskey, grain and other goods from the time pioneers settled Central Pennsylvania until the railroads were built in the mid-1800s.

"Obviously we've won this round, and we're happy about it," said Dan Tredinnick, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, one of three Commonwealth agencies involved in the suit. "We're in the recreation business and access is a very big key to recreation, so anything we can do to improve it is a good thing."

He indicated that attorneys are reviewing the decision to determine its impact and whether it might be used to build case law for future disputes over the privatization of natural resources.

But Judge Kurtz's ruling means that Mr. Beaver no longer can keep nonmembers from wading onto the Little J.

Among other things, the state sought specifically to prevent him from stringing piano wire across the stream.

The state's victory paves the way for Mr. Bright, owner of Spruce Creek Outfitters, to seek monetary damages against Mr. Beaver and his club. Mr. Bright claims the lack of access has cost him thousands of dollars in lost business over the years. "We will request financial records from Beaver to determine how much he made by advertising the Little J falsely as private water," Mr. Stein said.

Mr. Beaver's club came to symbolize for many a trend toward a pay-to-play culture, not just in Pennsylvania but nationwide.

Mr. Beaver's foray into Ohio last year has that state's fisheries managers vowing to fight to preserve access, although, in Ohio, private property owners on navigable waterways can own submerged land.

"We've been following what's happening in Pennsylvania," biologist Kevin Kayle of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources had said earlier this month, referring to the Little J case, "and that's what's got us moving off ground zero."

Ohio is contemplating a stamp, patterned after Pennsylvania's Lake Erie stamp, which would raise money exclusively to buy recreational easements or property along waterways, since even getting to the water has become more difficult in many places. Pennsylvania's stamp has raised more than $950,000 for such acquisitions in Erie. Eventually, stamp proceeds will be used statewide.

The fish commission recently filed another lawsuit over access, this one against a private property owner who is blocking the public from using a fish commission launch at Quaker Lake, the only lake out of dozens that hasn't been privatized in Susquehanna County in the Pocono Mountains.

Fish commissioner Len Lichvar of Boswell, whose appointment to the commission was stalled by landowners for years because of his efforts to preserve access on Central Pennsylvania streams, called the Little J decision "a clear success, but just one small battle in a much larger war."

"Future battles may have to go through an equally long and hard-fought process. Landowners also have rights and options," he said. "Just because this one came out in favor of the state doesn't mean others will. Land access issues are complicated."