Much of Atchafalaya Basin Off Limits, New Map Shows
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(PRWEB) December 15, 2004 -- To look at a map of the Atchafalaya Basin is to
see an unlimited number of fishing and hunting opportunities.
In reality,
however, most of that expanse of water and swampland is off limits to the
public.
That has been made crystal clear with the release of a map by the
State Lands Office that details exactly what the state claims.
“We’ve
finished inside the levees — only inside the levees,” the agency’s Clay Carter
said.
The 42-inch-by-72-inch map can be purchased by mailing a request
and $40 check to Records Section, State Lands Office, P.O. Box 44124, Baton
Rouge, LA 70804. Or go to the agency’s Web site (www.state.la.us/slo) and
download a copy for free.
Publicly accessible waters and lands are
indicated by an array of colors, depicting the extent of the state’s claim. Some
areas are partially claimed by the state, while others are fully
claimed.
All of these areas, however, are open to public use.
Take
Duck Lake, for instance. This large lake has produced some of the largest bass
in the Basin, and it is shown to be publicly accessible.
However, the
fact that the entire lake is open to public use is due to the State Lands
Office, with the state Attorney General’s backing, being aggressive in its
claims.
The southern half of the lake was ceded to private ownership by a
court in 1951, and that would seem to indicate the state could make no claim on
the waterway.
However, Carter said the matter didn’t end
there.
“Both sides agreed in that case that the waters were navigable in
1812,” he said.
And then the issue came up again in 1975 in a separate
case in a state Supreme Court case.
“It basically said navigable waters
are not susceptible to private ownership,” Carter said.
So the map shows
Duck Lake shaded in two colors: one for the part that falls under public
ownership and one that is open to navigation because of the 1975 Supreme Court
ruling.
“That is the last expression by the Supreme Court,” Carter
said.
And there is a vast amount of land and associated waters that are
claimed as public on the western side of the lower Basin.
These areas are
shaded in green, and are shown on the legend as being “vacant
lands.”
Carter explained that these are all publicly
accessible.
“In 1849, the Congress said the state could have all the
swamplands in the state,” he said. “That was 10 million of the 27 million acres
of land in the state.”
At this point, there are only about 30,000 acres
of that swampland remaining in the state’s ownership — the rest was sold
off.
Fortunately for Atchafalaya Basin hunters and anglers, a large swath
of that state-owned swampland is within the levees.
But east of Attakapas
Island Wildlife Management Area, the story is quite different.
The
ownership of almost all of that land and water resides in private
hands.
The public is legally allowed to navigate the main lakes — Flat
Lake, Grand Lake and Duck Lake — and a few main bayous, but everything else is
technically off limits.
Bayous noted as public include Little Bayou
Sorrel, Bear Bayou, Big and Little Bayous Jesse, Big Bayou Joe, Mystique Crew,
portions of Bayous May and April, Bayou Long, Old River and Bayou
Postillion.
Other public waterways are Big and Little Bayous Pigeon,
Middle Fork and a portion of Bayou Mallet (the two are not connected by public
waters), West Fork, Wildcat Bayou and a smattering of other minor
bayous.
There also are patches of public lands scattered throughout the
area.
The rest of the Basin east of Grand Lake and the Atchafalaya River
— including popular fishing holes such as the Shell Cuts north of Flat Lake, Zig
Zag and Reed Canal off of Big Bayou Pigeon — are legally inaccessible to the
public. That means if you fish there, you’re subject to state trespass
laws.
“That’s what the case law says — they said that canals are
private,” Carter said.
That being said, there could be changes to the map
as court cases are litigated and other waters are determined to be
public.
For instance, Bayou February snaking from Little Bayou Sorrel to
the back end of the Shell Cuts isn’t marked as public.
Carter admitted
that might be a mistake.
“I don’t know why it’s not marked,” he said.
“It’s obviously natural and obviously meandering.”
The reason could be
simple human error.
“Larry (Decker) is working on every single bayou in
the state,” Carter said of that surveyor’s work. “He’s trying to do as good as
he can, but nobody hits a home run every time.”
Such problems will be
remedied as State Lands officials discover them or when the public makes
requests on specific waterways.
“This is the work that is current, but it
changes day to day,” Carter said.
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538-4355 or logging onto www.lasmag.com.
by Andy Crawford
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/12/prweb188575.htm