Park Perspectives:
Defending paddlers' rights

By TOM WOODMAN

Should you happen to duck into the Explorer offices these days to warm your feet perhaps or partake of the friendly goodwill we share with all, you might notice something a little unusual.

There will still be plenty of talk about what’s going on in the Adirondack Park and how important it is that the great wild areas be preserved and, where appropriate, open for all who want to experience them. But now, along with the usual chatter of planning stories and mapping excursions, you’d hear a bunch of legalistic language, words like summons and complaint, judicial intervention, motions and briefs.

We haven’t all experienced midlife crises and enrolled in law school. We’ve been sued. (Technically, our editor Phil Brown has been sued, but that’s because of work he was doing for the Explorer, and the magazineis joining in his defense.)

Landowners known as the Friends of Thayer Lake and the Brandreth Park Association took exception to our coverage of their claim that they can chain off a waterway that flows through their land. [See story]. In particular, they were unhappy that Phil, in an effort to research the issue and bring our readers a full and accurate account of the situation, paddled a route from Lilypad Pond to Lake Lila in the William C. Whitney Wilderness. The trip between the two publicly owned lakes took him over three waterways, which are part of the more than thirty thousand acres the groups own: Mud Pond, Mud Pond Outlet, and a mile-long section of Shingle Shanty Brook.

The property owners had posted the waterways and blocked them with a cable even though state law seems clearly to require that this and many other rivers flowing over private lands remain open to paddlers traveling through. They might as well have been stretching their cables and posting their keep-out placards on a state roadway.

Eighteen months after he took that trip, the landowners filed a complaint against Phil for civil trespass and asked the courts to rule on two other claims that would establish their exclusive right to use this waterway. Not coincidentally, those eighteen months were filled with public discussion of New York’s common-law right of public navigation and ultimately a notice from the state Department of
Environmental Conservation affirming that this route is open to the public. The DEC asked the landowners to remove their chains and signs.

Not being legal eagles ourselves, we’re puzzled why the landowners would take this weighty action against our humble ink-stained editor when their quarrel seems to be with the state. Perhaps when he’s hauled before a tribunal, the plaintiffs will explain why it’s up to Phil to defend the state law that he simply followed, not created, when he launched his canoe. Actually we’re in hopes that the state will join us in court and share the legal burden. DEC has asked the state attorney general’s office to intervene.

We’re a bit uncomfortable being in this position and not just because of the prospect of accumulating legal fees and endless heaps of paperwork. We’re journalists, after all, not policymakers or solons. It’s true that we’re a different breed of journal than a mainstream daily newspaper. We’re a nonprofit newsmagazine with a mission and a point of view.
We’re devoted to exploring, protecting and celebrating the Adirondack Park. But still and all, we are journalists, and the tools of our trade are the words and pictures we use to present information that helps shape the future of our Park.

Generally we are observers and communicators, not players.
Being summoned to make our case in court in addition to the pages of our magazine takes us outside our comfort zone. But considering the importance of the issue and taking into account that we don’t have much choice anyway, we intend to answer the call and do all we can to clarify the public’s right to travel over navigable waters. This is a fitting cause for a magazine that is dedicated to the broadest possible public use of the wild lands that have been set aside for everybody.

Rights of navigation mean that you and your descendants can travel by water from one parcel of public land to another. In the long legal history surrounding this question, you can find arguments, analyses and interpretations of common law, case law, records of log drives, and title transfers. But I think the issue can be reduced to a simple principle: the fortunate few who own land along waterways are not entitled to block the way for others if all we’re doing is traveling between the banks of their lands on our way somewhere else. The fourth-generation Adirondacker introducing his kids to the wild has the right to float through those lands, as does the vacationing paddler, the nature lover, and the occasional journalist.

Your help needed

In defending our editor against this lawsuit the Explorer is thrust into a dispute that could go on for years and entail substantial costs. We are a small nonprofit organization, and our pockets are far from deep. We will need help in meeting these expenses.
 
If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to this effort, please mail your check to the Adirondack Explorer and specify that it is for the legal defense fund. This will be a restricted contribution that we use only for this purpose. The mailing address is 36 Church Street, Saranac Lake, NY 12983.
 
You may also contribute online. Enter your contribution amount, and note in the message field that the donation should go to the legal defense fund.
Or call (888)-888-4970.

We are very grateful for your assistance.