6wapiti6
12-19-2002, 11:54 AM
Just read this in todays medford mail tribune. Depending on which way this goes, it could effect all of us.
What started as a disagreement between a Curry County landowner and three salmon anglers has become a new litmus test over how far landowners can bar the public on streams that flow over private land.
Rancher Ted McNeely says he stretched a barbed-wire fence across the Pistol River, which flows over his property, to keep salmon anglers from fishing there.
"That land’s been in our family more than 100 years," McNeely says. "You should be entitled to some peaceful enjoyment of your land.
"It’s a private-property issue and a privacy issue."
But state boating managers see the wire as a safety and legal issue, and they want McNeely to get out of anglers’ way.
The Oregon State Marine Board says McNeely’s fence illegally blocks navigation, posing a safety risk to boaters and rafters who could entangle in it.
"We try to look at both sides, but the law is the law and safety is safety," says Deputy Director Wayne Shuyler of the Oregon State Marine Board, which is pressing the fence removal. "This is a clear case where there’s a violation of public safety and obstruction."
The Marine Board ordered McNeely to remove the fence by Dec. 26 or face a court fight.
Vandals, however, made that deadline moot this week when they cut down the fence, says McNeely, who adds that he will rebuild one as soon as the rain-swelled river shrinks to manageable size.
The old fence, and threats over a new one, are drawing interest beyond those who float the Pistol — a small salmon stream flowing largely over private land north of Brookings.
Anglers and rafters along similar streams — public water flowing through private land — worry that a victory for barbed wire over public access will generate similar fence-them-out efforts on other streams.
"However this case ends up is really going to impact fishing as we know it on a lot of streams in Oregon," says Lt. Steve Ross of the Oregon State Police, which is investigating the case.
"If it can happen on the Pistol River, it can happen on the Illinois, Applegate, Elk and Sixes rivers and other streams people float from time to time."
This 21st-century twist to the West’s barbed-wire wars began on Nov. 14, when three coastal salmon anglers floated a driftboat down the Pistol River and stopped on McNeely’s property to fish. McNeely called state police and signed a trespassing complaint against the men, who were cited.
McNeely says anglers never floated the Pistol, which is not deemed a navigable stream, until the past few years.
The boaters have left trash on his banks, stepped onto his property and interrupted the serene ranch scene there, he says.
"We don’t want to go down there and see people (fishing)," McNeely says.
Despite McNeely’s push, the case was not prosecuted.
A 1962 deed grants the public right of way along the Pistol bed and at least one of its banks, Ross says.
Around Thanksgiving, other floaters discovered the barbed wire spanning the river along McNeely’s property, police said.
McNeely told police the fences were to keep his cattle from wandering off his property, Ross says.
If a driftboat or raft hit the barbed wire, it could puncture or sink the craft and sink, Shuyler says.
Shuyler says even without the deed, Oregonians have access to traverse the streams and McNeely has no right to block that with fences.
McNeely says if the Marine Board can push him to accept anglers, then any Oregon landowner with the smallest of creeks running through it will have to do the same.
"It’s not a reasonable thing," McNeely says.
Shuyler says he does not believe the fencing fight on the Pistol will either end the issue or trigger more fence-them-out efforts across Oregon.
"We’ve had fences in the past and we’ll probably have fences in the future, regardless of what happens in this case," Shuyler says.
What started as a disagreement between a Curry County landowner and three salmon anglers has become a new litmus test over how far landowners can bar the public on streams that flow over private land.
Rancher Ted McNeely says he stretched a barbed-wire fence across the Pistol River, which flows over his property, to keep salmon anglers from fishing there.
"That land’s been in our family more than 100 years," McNeely says. "You should be entitled to some peaceful enjoyment of your land.
"It’s a private-property issue and a privacy issue."
But state boating managers see the wire as a safety and legal issue, and they want McNeely to get out of anglers’ way.
The Oregon State Marine Board says McNeely’s fence illegally blocks navigation, posing a safety risk to boaters and rafters who could entangle in it.
"We try to look at both sides, but the law is the law and safety is safety," says Deputy Director Wayne Shuyler of the Oregon State Marine Board, which is pressing the fence removal. "This is a clear case where there’s a violation of public safety and obstruction."
The Marine Board ordered McNeely to remove the fence by Dec. 26 or face a court fight.
Vandals, however, made that deadline moot this week when they cut down the fence, says McNeely, who adds that he will rebuild one as soon as the rain-swelled river shrinks to manageable size.
The old fence, and threats over a new one, are drawing interest beyond those who float the Pistol — a small salmon stream flowing largely over private land north of Brookings.
Anglers and rafters along similar streams — public water flowing through private land — worry that a victory for barbed wire over public access will generate similar fence-them-out efforts on other streams.
"However this case ends up is really going to impact fishing as we know it on a lot of streams in Oregon," says Lt. Steve Ross of the Oregon State Police, which is investigating the case.
"If it can happen on the Pistol River, it can happen on the Illinois, Applegate, Elk and Sixes rivers and other streams people float from time to time."
This 21st-century twist to the West’s barbed-wire wars began on Nov. 14, when three coastal salmon anglers floated a driftboat down the Pistol River and stopped on McNeely’s property to fish. McNeely called state police and signed a trespassing complaint against the men, who were cited.
McNeely says anglers never floated the Pistol, which is not deemed a navigable stream, until the past few years.
The boaters have left trash on his banks, stepped onto his property and interrupted the serene ranch scene there, he says.
"We don’t want to go down there and see people (fishing)," McNeely says.
Despite McNeely’s push, the case was not prosecuted.
A 1962 deed grants the public right of way along the Pistol bed and at least one of its banks, Ross says.
Around Thanksgiving, other floaters discovered the barbed wire spanning the river along McNeely’s property, police said.
McNeely told police the fences were to keep his cattle from wandering off his property, Ross says.
If a driftboat or raft hit the barbed wire, it could puncture or sink the craft and sink, Shuyler says.
Shuyler says even without the deed, Oregonians have access to traverse the streams and McNeely has no right to block that with fences.
McNeely says if the Marine Board can push him to accept anglers, then any Oregon landowner with the smallest of creeks running through it will have to do the same.
"It’s not a reasonable thing," McNeely says.
Shuyler says he does not believe the fencing fight on the Pistol will either end the issue or trigger more fence-them-out efforts across Oregon.
"We’ve had fences in the past and we’ll probably have fences in the future, regardless of what happens in this case," Shuyler says.