Governor signs water quality & private lands trespass bill advocated by Mississippi Forestry Association
Contact Information:
Bruce C. Alt, Executive Vice President, Mississippi Forestry Association
601.354.4936
balt@msforestry.net
Monday, May 12, Governor Barbour signed the water quality and private lands trespass bill advocated by Mississippi Forestry Association and conservation partners. Due to widespread ATV riding in streams and trespassing without permission from landowners, Mississippi land and aquatic ecosystems have suffered needless damage. “Education of the public, especially young riders, on responsible ATV use is an essential part of addressing this problem. Stream riding is not a legal water sport. Fish habitat in public waterways is a public resource. Sediment and stream bottom disturbance from ATVs and other motorized vehicles in the beds of streams and rivers is harmful to fish reproduction and the insect larvae and small organisms that feed newly hatched fish. The Mississippi Forestry Association and its partners opened a much needed discussion on a change in the law and the effort was a success,” said Andrew Whitehurst, coordinator, Mississippi Scenic Streams Stewardship Program.
House Bill 1357 seeks to:
- protect private property rights;
- decrease the widespread practice of trespassing on private lands by all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), especially in Mississippi’s public waterways;
- prevent the associated destruction of aquatic ecosystems and fisheries habitat; and
- increase the penalties for trespassing on private lands.
This bill, HB1357, was proposed during the 2008 legislative session by Mississippi Forestry Association (MFA) and forestry community partners in order to protect the aquatic ecosystems and improve the fisheries habitat of the state’s public waterways. To strengthen Mississippi’s public waterways statute, the law was changed to prohibit all types of vehicles, including ATVs, from operating within the bed of our public waterways and trespassing on private land.
However, it is legal to ford streams for recreational, agricultural, forestry, or other lawful purposes.
What is a public waterway? Mississippi Code defines a public waterway as those portions of all natural flowing streams in this state having a mean annual flow of not less than one hundred (100) cubic feet per second, as determined and designated on appropriate maps by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). The law states that citizens shall have the right of free transport in the stream and the right to fish and engage in water sports. By law, citizens are not allowed to disturb the banks or beds of such waterways because the banks and beds are private property. “This is really good news that the governor and legislators recognize the importance of protecting the streams. The problem is that the public is ignorant of the law. Trespassers have caused considerable damage on my land; one time I had to pull a pick-up truck out of my stream with a bulldozer,” said Jim Currie, landowner and vice-president of Harrison/Hancock County Forestry Association. A map of all the state’s public waterways can be viewed on the MDEQ website at http://www.deq.state.ms.us/MDEQ.nsf/page/L&W_pub_waterways?OpenDocument
MFA wishes to gratefully recognize and thank our forestry community partners who joined with us to pass this landmark environmental and private property rights legislation. The Miss. Dept. of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, Miss. Museum of Natural Science, Wildlife Mississippi, Miss. Farm Bureau Federation, Miss. Wildlife Federation, and the Miss. Chapter of the Sierra Club worked together during the 2008 legislative session.
“Without the support and advocacy efforts of our coalition partners, these strategic goals of preserving and protecting water quality, improving fisheries habitat, and providing stiffer penalties for trespassing on private lands would not have been possible,” stated Bruce C. Alt, executive vice president, Mississippi Forestry Association.
MFA was formed in 1938 to guard and grow Mississippi’s forests and that is still the association’s mission today. Celebrating 70 years of service, MFA is the only organization in Mississippi that represents every segment of the forestry community. MFA leads the effort to protect private property and landowner rights, to improve the forest products economy, and educate the community about the environmental benefits of healthy, renewable, and sustainable forests and a vital forest industry. MFA is a private (non government), nonprofit association. To learn more, please visit www.msforestry.net