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>From: "Horton, Christopher
M." <Christopher.M.Horton@bassmaster.com>
>Subject: VERY Important Issue
>Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:35:06 -0400
>
>Hey guys and gals,
>
>Time to lend our colorful friends in
Louisiana a hand... as well as
>ourselves. An action alert will soon be
going up on the Conservation
>page of Bassmaster.com in reference to a
pending court case that could
>shut the door on access to navigable
portions of streams and rivers.
>Five anglers were arrested for fishing in
Gassaway Lake, LA when the
>water level was between the ordinary high
and low water marks.
>Typically, these are considered navigable
waters, right? Not
>necessarily, at least not in a certain
parish of Louisiana. We've
>already lost one big navigation lawsuit in
Arkansas (Echubby Chute), but
>we simply cannot afford to loose another.
Two rulings would set a
>national precedence for property owners to
block access to waters that
>have been open to the public for over 200
years.
>
>Here's what we need: letters and money! An
amicus brief (if we get $5K
>and enough responses) will be filed with
the US District Court to help
>the judge understand the gravity of the
decision. The landowner, in
>conjunction with the ever powerful
Louisiana Landowners Association,
>have already filed a 35 page amicus that
basically spells out that we
>have no right to fish states waters, unless
it's below the ordinary low
>water mark. If this ruling comes back
against public access, we are
>indeed in trouble. We need you (especially
the states that border the
>Mississippi River) to have every club send
a letter (an example is
>attached) to Mr. Paul Hurd, explaining that
they would support an amicus
>brief if it argues for anglers rights to
access. The letters will serve
>to demonstrate to the Court that a
significant number citizens are
>genuinely concerned and want a chance to
make a plea to the Court.
>
>If the club can afford it, a donation is
also desperately needed.
>Noreen and I are both sending checks out of
our personal accounts...it's
>that important. The Louisiana BASS
Federation Nation has graciously
>agreed to accept the donations for the
amicus and legal battles. Please
>make checks payable to the LA BASS
Federation Nation/Conservation, who
>by the way, have pledged $1000 out of their
operating budget to support
>the cause. Donations should be sent to:
>Wayne Allemand
>5116 Ross Lane
>Marrero, LA 70072-5928
>
>Chris Horton
>Associate Director, Conservation
>
>BASS
>PO Box 10000
>Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
>407-566-2217
>407-566-2072 (fax)
>860-839-2970 (cell)
_________________________________________________________________________
LAW OFFICES
OF
PAUL
LOY
HURD
1890 Hudson Circle, Suite 2, Monroe,
Louisiana 71201
P.O. Box 2190, Monroe, Louisiana 71207-2190
(318) 323-3838 · FAX (318) 330-9390
April 17,
2006
FELLOW
RECREATIONAL ANGLERS OF AMERICA
RE: LEGAL
CHALLENGE TO PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO FISH
MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND OTHER NAVIGABLE
WATERWAYS
Normal
Parm, Jr. et al. v. Mark W. Shumate, as
Sheriff of East Carroll Parish
Civil Docket No. 3:01-CV2624
United States District Court;
Western District of Louisiana; Monroe
Division
Ladies
and Gentlemen:
This letter is a “call to arms”
to the many local and regional fishing and
boating organizations. I must inform each
of you and your membership of the very real
and powerful efforts being made in courts of
America to exclude the public from fishing
on any portion of America’s navigable rivers
except for fishing in the main channel of
the River, or not at all. This legal threat
to America’s fishing heritage is substantial
and real.
In our case, the local Sheriff
is arresting fishermen while they fish the
edges and banks of the Mississippi River
even while the water is directly connected
to the Mississippi River, and even when the
water is ten or twenty or thirty feet deep.
The Sheriff will arrest fishermen unless
they stay in the River on areas that are
always covered by water at normal low
water. The Sheriff’s arrests are made at
the request of local landowners who are
intent on claiming the fishing waters of
America’s navigable Rivers as their
exclusive domain.
As fellow fishermen and boaters,
I ask you to have your local and state
fishing organization support our effort to
protect our right to fish in America’s
River. The Louisiana BASS Federation Nation
is committed to filing a brief with the
federal court in support of the public to
fish. We need you and your local and state
fishing clubs to contribute also. You can
contact Mr. Will Courtney or Mr. Kevin
Gaubert, Louisiana Bass Federation for more
information and where to send the funds to
support the legal right to fish in America.
Without your support each of us are at risk
that the public’s right to boat, fish and
recreate on navigable waters will be lost
forever.
If the fishermen on the
Mississippi River can be pushed to the
center of the main channel, then America’s
fishermen on all the other navigable rivers
are destined for the same threatening
treatment. If the Sheriff wins this case,
recreational fishing on public waters is a
thing of the past.
I ask for your support, and the
support of your fishing clubs and
organizations, to defeat the Sheriff’s legal
attempt to claim the bounty of public
fisheries for himself and the local riparian
landowners. We need America’s fishermen,
and America’s fishing organizations and
boating organizations in support your legal
position that under the state and federal
navigational servitudes, and under state and
federal public trust doctrines, the public
has the right to fish America’s navigable
waterways, from bank to bank as the river
naturally rises and falls. If the Sheriff’s
position is upheld, the public’s right to
fish the bank and the shallows of the
navigable waters of the Ohio River, the
Tennessee River, the Arkansas River, the
Missouri River, and any other navigable
waterway will end. If the public cannot
fish and boat on the Mississippi River, then
every river, stream, bay and marsh will be
off-limits to the public for fishing,
boating and recreation.
This case has been ongoing for
ten (10) years and is the culmination of the
public access fight by fishermen to access
public waters to fish. The Plaintiffs have
asserted that navigable waters are useable
across the entire surface of the navigable
waterway for boating and fishing. The
riparian owners assert that public boating
and fishing is limited to the main channel.
Please contact your favorite
fishing organizations, boating organizations
and outdoors businesses, to solicit their
support of the public’s right to utilize the
navigable waters of America. It is
imperative that those organizations
dependent on public fishing and boating know
that now is the time to defend those rights
or they may be lost in this precedent
setting case. It is clear that your case
will be the precedent for public use of the
surface of navigable streams in Louisiana,
Texas and Mississippi, as the case will be
reviewed by the United States Court of
Appeals, Fifth Circuit, once the District
Court renders an opinion in this matter. We
need you and your club’s financial support
for a legal brief in support of public
access.
If the fishermen’s legal brief
is filed on behalf of public fishing and
boating, and we win at the District Court
level, the public’s rights to fishing and
boating will be much easier to defend on
appeal. Conversely, if you and the public
loses in the District Court, and fishermen
and boaters are ordered off the shallows of
navigable waters, it will be much more
difficult to reverse that adverse decision
on appeal.
Finally, it is important that
the fishing clubs file their legal brief
soon, so that the Judge will have it for his
reference and utilization as he decides
whether the public has a right to fish on
public, navigable waterways. For this
reason, time is of the essence. Please have
each organization that is interested in
supporting the public’s right to fish, to
contact my office directly, and as soon as
possible.
Sincerely,
PAUL LOY
HURD
Attorney
at Law
__________________________________________________________
Threatened: Access to Millions of Acres of
Navigable Waters Could be Lost!
A case
now pending in Louisiana in the Western
District of the US District Court could make
it unlawful to access all Mississippi River
waters except the main channel. Since this
Nation was founded, it has been the historic
right to access and fish the navigable
waters of our streams and rivers. However,
Normal Parm, Jr. et al. versus Mark W.
Shumate, as Sheriff of East Carroll Parish,
could change that forever. If the judge
rules in favor of the sheriff, then anglers
could be arrested for fishing a backwater
when the waters are between the ordinary low
and high water marks. Think it won’t
happen? It already has on a backwater of
the Arkansas River called Echuby Chute.
This may be our last chance to take a stand
or we could have a precedence for denying
access on any navigable waters in the entire
United States.
WRITE
TODAY: Send a letter to Attorney Paul Loy
Hurd, stating that you and/or your bass club
supports an Amicus Brief ( Friends of the
Court) arguing for anglers’ right of access
to public navigable waters. Don’t wait for
someone else to do it. We cannot afford to
lose this case. The ruling could come at
any time, so a quick response is necessary.
E-mail
your letter to (an example letter is
provided below):
Paul Loy
Hurd
paulhurd@networktel.net
Artie
Nevels
velnev@aol.com
Donations to help pay for development and
submission of the Amicus Brief can be mailed
to:
The
Louisiana BASS Federation
Nation/Conservation
Wayne
Allemand
5116 Ross Lane
Marrero, Louisiana 70072-5928
________________________________________________________________________
Cut
and Paste the letter below into your letter
and/or email:
Paul Loy Hurd
Attorney at Law
1890 Hudson Circle
Suite 2
Monroe, LA 71201
Dear Mr. Hurd:
Myself and my bass
club,
, are deeply concerned about the
potential ramifications of a judgment in
favor of Mark W. Shumate, United States
District Court, Western Division of
Louisiana, case number 3:01-CV2624.
The inherent right of
the public to access navigable waters is
essentially in the hands of the Court.
Since founded, this country has protected
public access to navigable waters, and
considered these waters a public trust. A
ruling otherwise would adversely impact
millions of anglers, as well as a
substantial portion of the sport fishing
industry. We do not wish to see over 200
years of American history re-written,
jeopardizing our way of life.
We understand that an
amicus brief is being prepared on behalf of
anglers and angling organizations to better
inform the Court of the potential impacts of
the decision. We would like to review that
brief, and if it argues to protect the right
to access navigable waters, we would like to
be a signatory.
Thank you for your time
and efforts on this most important matter.
Sincerely,
(your name)
(your clubs name)
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