![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2010\/06\/220px-Ausable.jpg\" "\\"220px-Ausable\\"")
<\/a>Ausable Chasm, Source: Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>Phil Brown over at the Adirondack Explorer<\/a> has been reporting on the escalating feud between whitewater paddlers and the owners of the Ausable Chasm<\/a> south of Plattsburgh.<\/p>\n After lengthy legal wrangles, paddlers won access to the rapids, which include some class five drops.<\/p>\n Last weekend, they ran the route successfully for the first time, but immediately ran into legal entanglements with the Chasm’s operators.\u00a0 This from Phil’s blog post:<\/p>\n Ausable Chasm Co. called the state police on Friday\u2014the first day the run was open\u2014to complain that kayakers were trespassing.<\/p>\n State Police Captain Brent Gillam said troopers filed criminal summonses against three paddlers, but the decision on whether to bring charges is in the hands of the town court.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Kevin Colburn, national stewardship with a group called American Whitewater, told the Explorer that company is still trying to restrict access to the river.<\/p>\n He said employees were yelling at kayakers who paddled down the river Friday and over the weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t like the public floating through their river,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Tim Bresett, manager of the Ausable Chasm Co, disputed that account.\u00a0 In his interview with Brown, he accused paddlers of leaving the shore and trespassing on private land.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not our position to play hardball with these guys,\u201d he said, \u201cbut you got to play by the rules.\u201d\u00a0 He went on to add that the river is dangerous and some paddlers appeared unprepared.\u00a0 \u201cI guarantee somebody will die on the river this year,\u201d Bresett said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This conflict arises as part of a wider discussion — provoked largely by Brown’s reporting — of public access to posted rivers and streams in the Adirondacks.<\/p>\n Many traditional paddling routes, used for generations, are now described as private property by landowners, despite the fact that common law in New York state requires that “navigable” rivers be unrestricted.<\/p>\n So what do you think?\u00a0 Should paddlers have access to the Park’s waterways?\u00a0 Or is this an intrusion on private property rights?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Phil Brown over at the Adirondack Explorer has been reporting on the escalating feud between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2266,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions\/2266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}