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CONSERVATION CORNER
(For the week of June 16, 2008)
Legislature Increases Fines For Trespassing
by James L. Cummins

Governor Haley Barbour has signed the water quality and private lands trespass bill advocated by Wildlife Mississippi, the Mississippi Forestry Association, Farm Bureau, the Mississippi Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club. Due to widespread ATV riding in streams and trespassing without permission from landowners, Mississippi's aquatic ecosystems have suffered needless damage. Education of the public, especially young riders, on responsible ATV use is an essential part of addressing this problem. Stream riding is not a legal water sport. Fish habitat in public waterways is a public resource. Sediment and stream bottom disturbance from ATVs and other motorized vehicles in the beds of streams and rivers is harmful to fish reproduction and the insect larvae and small organisms that feed newly hatched fish.

House Bill 1357 seeks to: 1) protect private property rights; 2) decrease the widespread practice of trespassing on private lands by all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), especially in Mississippi’s public waterways; 3) prevent the associated destruction of aquatic ecosystems and fisheries habitat; and 4) increase the penalties for trespassing on private lands.

The law states that citizens shall have the right of free transport in the stream and the right to fish and engage in water sports. By law, citizens are not allowed to disturb the banks or beds of such waterways because the banks and beds are private property.

“This is really good news that the governor and legislators recognize the importance of protecting the streams. The problem is that the public is ignorant of the law. Trespassers have caused considerable damage on my land; one time I had to pull a pick-up truck out of my stream with a bulldozer,” said Jim Currie, landowner, vice-president of Harrison/Hancock County Forestry Association and a member of Wildlife Mississippi.

House Bill 1357 that was sponsored by Rep. Herb Frierson, R-Poplarville, would impose penalties of $250 for the first offense for driving in the state's defined public waterways, which the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality designates. A map of all the state’s public waterways can be viewed on the MDEQ website at http://www.deq.state.ms.us/MDEQ.nsf/page/L&W_pub_waterways?OpenDocument.

The bill also makes it illegal to offer a license or a fee for someone to ride in protected waterways, which has been done in some cases.