ATHENS – A recreational boating group are seeking to confirm the “Right to Float” for all Georgia’s rivers and streams.
Release:
After decades of losing public access to popular boating destinations, a coalition of recreational boating and river conservation groups is seeking to confirm the “right to float” all of Georgia’s rivers and streams in this year’s General Assembly session.
Thursday, representatives of Georgia River Network, Georgia Canoeing Association, American Whitewater and American Canoe Association as well as individual citizens and businesses requested the House Judiciary Committee amend HB 1172, a bill clarifying boating, fishing and hunting rights on Georgia’s larger “navigable” streams, with language designed to enshrine in Georgia law the right to boat on all of the state’s rivers and streams.
During the past several decades, boaters have seen property owners close access to streams that have traditionally been floated by boaters, and courts have sided with property owners, using the state’s definition of “navigable” streams enacted in 1863 when steamboats and timber rafts regularly plied Georgia’s rivers.
“Should private property owners on all of these streams have the power to override public freedoms and all the economic benefits that flow from them?” said Suzanne Welander, a Georgia Canoeing Association member and author of the guidebook, Canoeing and Kayaking Georgia, asked the committee. “I just ask you to protect Georgia’s freedom to float by ensuring that any stream, if it’s capable of floating a boat, remains open and accessible to the public.”
Commissioners creating Georgia’s first official code in 1863 defined navigable streams as those “capable of transporting boats loaded with freight in the regular course of trade either for the whole or a part of the year. The mere rafting of timber or the transporting of wood in small boats shall not make a stream navigable.”
“You can look long and hard and never find any boats loaded with freight on any of the state’s rivers today,” said Rena Ann Peck, Executive Director of Georgia River Network. “You will find dozens of canoe and kayak outfitters doing business on these streams. You’ll also find recreational boaters in everything from small motorized johnboats to tiny kayaks. That definition of navigability shouldn’t play a role in defining where the public has the right to boat in the 21st century.”
In the recent past, however, that definition has been used by courts to restrict public access to Armuchee Creek in Floyd County and Ichawaynochaway Creek in Baker County. During the hearing, Dan MacIntyre, an attorney and Georgia Canoeing Association member, presented a letter to the committee from former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher in which he urged the committee to address these court rulings.
One of two justices who dissented in the Supreme Court’s Ichawaynochaway ruling, Fletcher noted an 1849 Georgia Supreme Court ruling that determined that Georgians have the right to float down streams capable of floating vessels of any size. On such streams, the court said a public easement exists for the passage of boats.
The issue is of importance to small businesses throughout the state. More than 70 outfitters provide services for recreational boaters on the state’s streams. In 2022, fishing and boating generated $1.1 billion million in economic activity in Georgia.
“Businesses like ours depend on Georgia’s streams being open and accessible to the public,” said George Virgo, General Manager of Chattahoochee Operations with Nantahala Outdoor Center. “In other states where we operate, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, state laws protect a paddler’s right to pass through any stream that is capable of floating a boat. These laws have worked to support a robust outdoor recreation and tourism economy while protecting private property rights. We need that same right enshrined in Georgia.”
The Judiciary Committee chose not make changes to HB 1172. The bill was generated by the House Study Committee on Fishing Access to Freshwater Resources which heard testimony at four public hearings last fall following the passage of SB 115 during the 2023 legislative session. SB 115 codified Georgians’ right to boat, fish and hunt on the state’s navigable streams. HB 1172 seeks to clarify and limit the scope of that legislation.
The recreational boat groups contend that while clarifying boating, fishing and hunting rights on the state’s largest streams like the Altamaha and Savannah, the bill leaves hundreds of miles of smaller water bodies at risk of being closed to the public. Popular boating destinations like the Coosawattee, Upper Etowah and Alapaha rivers along with streams like Ebenezer, Talking Rock, South Chickamauga and Big Cedar Creek are at risk of being closed to the public without action by the General Assembly.
The bill now sits in the House Rules Committee where it may be amended.
“Legislators should act to strengthen this bill by protecting Georgians’ freedom to float all of the state’s streams that support recreational boating,” Peck said.
Georgia River Network is a 501c3 non-profit organization with the mission of protecting, and connecting people with, Georgia’s rivers. It serves as the Department of Natural Resources NGO partner developing the statewide water trails program.
Georgia Canoeing Association is a statewide organization that promotes recreational paddling, river courtesy, skill development and river safety. GCA also has a river protection mission to keep Georgia’s rivers clean and flowing and open to paddling.
American Whitewater is a national organization with many Georgia members, focused on protecting and restoring our nation’s whitewater rivers and enhancing opportunities to enjoy them safely.
The American Canoe Association is a national organization with strong Georgia membership which serves as the National Governing Body for Olympic paddlesports and serves the broader paddling public by providing the gold standard in paddlesports educational programs, supporting stewardship initiatives that affect paddlers and the rivers they enjoy, and offering competition opportunities to paddlers of all abilities.
For More Information, contact Joe Cook 706-409-0128 or joe@garivers.org
