I know that this my sound funny to a lot of people but this issue is starting to spread to a lot of states. I first heard of this a long time ago about property owners who have built next to a river, saying that they also own the right to the river bottom, this all started along the Mississippi River. I was shocked when I picked up the Washington Post yesterday and found this report about the same thing here in Western Virginia. Im not sure the scanned story will fit into here but Im going to try. One property owner has even sued one fisherman for 10,000.00 when the criminal trespassing harge was dropped. The property owners are saying they own the river bottom based on historical grants dating back to King George II in the 18th century. Conflicts over public access have been increasing in recent years, not only in Virginia but on rivers across the country, and the say is right, THIS COULD HAPPEN TO A RIVER NEAR YOU.
