Fighting Proposed Rafting Restrictions

[MAXUM]

Originally Posted by garysanfran

Someone better care about polluting behavior. If not the rafters, let it be property owners. I don't care who it is looking out for a cleaner environment. Hundreds of people peeing in a small bay is not a good thing for property and non-property owners...It's not good for the lake and yes, I DO think shoreline property owners have more of a vested interest in keeping the Lake pristine than the occasional visitor...No?

Guess we need then to petition to close every public beach on the lake, but not just the lake ANY public beach.

Property owners may have a vested interest in caring for the lake and as one myself I am certainly cognizant of behaviors that are detrimental to the lake however it is the state that has ultimate jurisdiction not me.

Furthermore in regards to "riparian rights" and I quote

"...The New Hampshire Supreme Court has held that riparian property-owners have rights which are more extensive than those of the public generally on certain areas of the water. The right to “use and occupy the waters adjacent to their shore for a variety of recreational purposes” is an
incidental property right associated with ownership of riparian property. Riparian property owners may “wharf out” to access the water, but they may not unreasonably interfere with the public’s use of the water. Such riparian rights, however, “are always subject to the paramount right of the State to control them reasonably in the interests of navigation, water storage and classification, health and other public purposes...."

Way I read this is pretty darn simple, property owners do have some inherent rights to ASK to put in a dock as to access their private property subject to the determination of the state's approval who acts as a steward on behalf of the public who ultimately governs the waterway. The problem is to many who buy waterfront think they own the lake and THAT is not true.