The power of ‘No’
Trespass warnings on Georgia rivers roil the waters
ALBANY — The Chestatee River is there somewhere. It shows on the map winding through the hills just south of Dahlonega in north Georgia. “Chestatee” is on road signs along U.S. Highway 19. But the river is hard to see from a public road, and you can’t hear its rushing water.
It’s no wonder the river is elusive. Foreboding signs are all around the river. No Trespassing. No Fishing. No River Access. No Parking. No Turnaround. Private Road. Welcome to The Land of No. The state has forever been a champion of property owners, and the might of landowners is showing up around the state’s rivers and streams. Sections of waterways have been walled off from kayakers, tubers and anglers because public access is denied in long stretches of shoreline. It might seem absurd to be in the middle of the wilderness and see a “No Fishing” sign nailed to a tree leaning out over the river 20 feet above the water.
The Georgia Wildlife Federation, the Flint Riverkeeper, and the Altamaha Riverkeeper are pushing back on “No.” They wrote a public letter, which is making the rounds to state agencies and legislators decrying the increasing lack of public access to waterways in the state.
“In recent years a growing number of landowners and those leasing ‘fishing rights’ from them are seeking to limit the public’s access to our rivers and streams as anglers,” the letter says. “‘No Fishing’ signs have popped up all over Georgia next to our free-flowing rivers, whose populations of fish have been managed and protected by dedicated public servants. Those dedicated public servants’ salaries and resources are paid by those that hunt
and fish, not by those that own land. Our access to these rivers is via boat ramps that are more often than not paid for by hunters and anglers.”
The issue is especially frothy on the Flint River where anglers hunt the internationally famous shoal bass in an area known as Yellow Jacket Shoals. One sign popped up along the banks saying fishing is by permit only, or not at all.
Mike Worley, the president and CEO of the Georgia Wildlife Federation, said he was getting calls from anglers caught off guard by “No Fishing” signs on the Flint.
“They said they’ve been able to fish this stretch of the river for years and all of a sudden there are no fishing signs,” Worley said. “We wrote the letter saying that it’s time for us to really take a stand that these stretches of river can’t
be closed to fishermen.”
Worley said property owners contend they own the bottom of the river from the shore to the centerline of the river. The state statute, he said, maintains that if a river is determined to be navigable, the private landowner only controls to the low watermark, or to that water at his ankles, which is where the fish typically are not.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources Enforcement is siding with the anglers. The department’s Lt. Judd Smith said DNR would not be writing any citations for fishing on the Flint. It is considered a “navigable” waterway, and even if property owners show a deed that extends their property line into the water, they cannot restrict fishing or floating.
Smith said even if a property owner has deed to both sides of the Flint, they cannot restrict fishing.
“The landowner certainly is within their rights to say no trespassing; you can’t get out and go on to their land if they say you can’t,” Worley said. “But if law enforcement folks won’t write a ticket, it’s hard to make an argument that they have the right to say that you can’t fish there.”