SteelSlayer77

pikepredator2
Thought the same thing about kjh's post except for one thing:  say i buy a piece of property adjacent to a stream and post it for my own and my families use.  nobody else will be fishing it, no pay to fish (etc).  so now i won't be allowed to fish my own land because my posted area of the stream has been designated a nursery water?  that doesn't sound right.  and i can tell you right now that the ****ing will never stop. i can hear it now, "why is that guy fishing with us when he has his own stream side property to fish?"  if other states have worked out these problems mentioned in the 6 pages of this topic, then PA needs to look to them for solutions.

 
Exactly.  There are already hundreds of streams where the DCNR believes they have enough documentation to win a navigability ruling.  They have been compiling a map of streams so that they can collect Marcellus gas royalties from anyone drilling under these streams.   Here's the map:
 
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/NaturalGas/publicstreambeds/index.htm
 
Elk creek in Erie is not on it.  But if 200+ streams in PA are already considered public stream beds by the DCNR and they believe they could win a navigability ruling if they need to, then I don't see the issue in creating a law declaring any stream stocked with a public funded resource a public stream bed.  You guys against a PA version of the Montana law are crazy.  Look at all the streams the DCNR already believes are public.  Why should it be any different for a land owner in Erie compared to a land owner on any one of these hundreds of mapped streams found across nearly every county in the state?  The navigability law is a joke and it's obscure, we need a clear law that opens up any stream bed within the high water marks where publicly funded resources are allocated.   Just saying! 

SteelSlayer77Why should it be any different for a land owner in Erie compared to a land owner on any one of these hundreds of mapped streams found ac

 

I understand your point that that MT is a lot more rural and much less populated than PA.

However did you look at the map of streams the DCNR already considers public streambed in PA?  Over 200+ streams (many smaller than Elk Creek in Erie) that the DCNR already considers public stream bed.

We can legally float down any body of water in the state without touching bottom.

We can legally walk streambeds within the high water mark on any small stream deemed navigable, why?  Because some farmer in the early 1800's use to float produce downstream to market.  But we can't walk within the high water mark of a stream where publicly funded resources are being allocated today.  Doesn't make sense to me.

SteelSlayer77
I never said all the streams in that map have been officially declared navigable, in fact there's a disclaimer stating that in the link.  However the DCNR is saying that they believe they have enough evidence to get the navigable declaration in a court of law if necessary, and are willing to go through with it if any gas companies drill under any of those streams.
 

Cold
Sounds like you're just a dUmaS.

Esox_Hunter

SteelSlayer77
I never said all the streams in that map have been officially declared navigable, in fact there's a disclaimer stating that in the link.  However the DCNR is saying that they believe they have enough evidence to get the navigable declaration in a court of law if necessary, and are willing to go through with it if any gas companies drill under any of those streams.
 

Where did you get the bolded statement above from?  I see no mention of such a thing on the website.  The link you provided shows publicly owned streambeds, which doesn't necessarily mean that the stream is navigable or could be declared navigable if a case was pursued for that matter.  Many of the streams listed on the page are merely owned by the public (federal or state) making them publicly owned streambeds.