Last week, NCPR reported that a group of private landowners near Tupper Lake are suing journalist Phil Brown after he allegedly trespassed on their land.<\/p>\n
Brown, managing editor of the Adirondack Explorer magazine, paddled Shingle Shanty Brook to research a story on paddling access rights.<\/p>\n
Now Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Yancey Roy has confirmed that his agency has formally requested that the state Attorney General’s office intervene in the case on behalf of Brown and other paddlers.<\/p>\n
(I haven’t heard back yet from the AG’s press office about their plans.)<\/p>\n
At issue is an ongoing feud between backcountry canoists, who believe that navigable streams are public right-of-ways, and some landowners, who are convinced that their private property rights are being violated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue is whether \t\t\tthe private land owned by the Brandreth family going back to 1851 is \t\t\tland that is exclusively private or whether there is a public \t\t\teasement over the water course that runs across the northeast part \t\t\tof that property,\u201d said Dennis Phillips, the attorney representing the property owners.<\/p>\n
Phillips says he hopes the suit filed by his clients will settle the question.<\/p>\n
In September, DEC assistant commissioner Christopher Amata sided with paddlers in the dispute.<\/p>\n
He sent a letter to Phillips, insisting that Shingle Shanty Brook should be open to a “public right of navigation” and demanding that the landowners “immediately discontinue all efforts to interfere with, impede or prevent public navigation of those waters.”<\/p>\n
Brown says he remains convinced that he was within his legal rights when he paddled the brook and used the short portage trail.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve talked to many \t\t\texperts about this, lawyers and others,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI felt \t\t\tconfident that the law was on our side and that\u2019s why I made the \t\t\ttrip. I wouldn\u2019t have intentionally trespassed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillips says the landowners don’t intend to ask for punitive damages.\u00a0 But if they win their case, they hope to force Brown to pay their legal fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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