Yeah Andre, the analogy was meant to strike a chord.
If we say that natural resources should not be in private hands, who then says what is a natural resource? How big a trickle of water constitutes one which must be shared with all? For someone who lives in a concrete building- no grass and no trees, a short trip to the suburbs and any little patch of grass or grove of trees might seem an appropriate natural resource to sit under for a picnic. What government has the right to take away your right to determine who will walk on or through your property?
If you own a house on a lake, should anyone have the right to use your yard to put their boat in? If your answer would be "there is a public boat launch on the other side of the lake so go there", one with land on these rivers would say "there is public access at point x, get to the natural resource that way".
I heard one argument that went that the public pays for the fish (the fish are owned by the state) that are stocked in the rivers so the public should have access to them. Jersey still stocks pheasants, yes? Should the public be given free access to the land under any pheasant? In NY the deer and turkey are property of the state (in a sense). What anarchy there would be out here in the boon docks if people followed that same logic!
In Jersey and now more and more here in NY, because of the lack of access to unposted land, people form small groups and pay landowners to hunt on their property. (It is funny, that the first thing that these guys do is "help" the owner post the property so they have exclusive rights to it.) I know you said that owners shouldn't profit from their being situated on the river. But should they not profit in some way from the value of the property they own? Property values are different all over, and people make money based on them. Why not in this case? If they took ten bucks from every car that parked on their property to go fishing or whatever, would that be OK? If that is OK, then what is the difference?
I know this is a complicated subject, and no simple little analogy will encompass the entire issue,but I guess my point is that there has to be at least some understanding between those who own land around these resources and those who want to use the resource. It used to be that people would show up now and again to say hello, drop off a bottle(my dad once got a couple of pounds of homemade salami from this old Italian man that used to hunt on our property), or help out in some small way in return for the privilege of using somebody's property. But we live in different times, and even if they showed up, having people you hardly know tromping around is not too much of a settling thought. I'm just begining to fish these rivers, and would hate to lose the privilege of doing so, but I think it is up to the state to ensure that New Yorkers (and some people from NJ
) have the right to fish these waters in some way shape or form that is fair to everyone involved.
