How does Michigan law define ownership of surface waters?
I once heard that the Michigan Constitution stated that all permanent waters were held in public trust, but this has been challenging to find in the text. I am mostly interested in the implications of the law with regard to recreational use of lakes and ponds and adjacent shoreline. For example, does a lakefront property owner have exclusive use rights up to the present water level or the official high or mean water mark?
Answers:
I'm not familiar with MI, but here is a site that may help:
http://www.in.gov/dnr/water/lake_michiga...
Any navigable natural water in the United States and most of the world is free domain and no one owns or controls it. Man made lakes are all different and the covenants concerning the usage of the lake and shoreline of them are as individual as the lakes themselves. There have been legal disputes about whether a stream that can only be navigated down stream in a kayak is actually navigable but I don't know of a single case where the owner has successfully closed one.
good question!
we are having a huge battle in nebraska over water rights with the farmers!
they are spending millions of dollars of taxpayers money over waterrights!
the farmers and ranchers are sucking the rivers dry for irrigation, and the states downstream from us arent gettin their alloted amount, so we have to pay millions in fines to bail out the farmers!
plus all the recreational areas are being dried up!
the ranchers up along the niabrara river have a snobby cold blooded attitude that they can use all the water they want!
our state government doesnt know wich way to go to please everyone, in the meantime huge amounts of taxpayers money is just washing dowstream!
the niabrara is one one of natures wonders and should be protected!
but hey who am i?!
Constant lawsuits in Michigan over this issue. Generally speaking on inland lakes each lakefront landowners property line extend to the theoretical "center" of the lake, this would also apply to road end right of ways and other easements. The difference is that in theory (and always being challenged in court) road ends and other public easements are for public use. Higgins Lake is a constant source of lawsuits and often sited as president. I live on a short street in Michigan that ends at the waters edge and this road end was the subject of a lawsuit last year we maintained our access rights(ingress/ egress) but no docks are allowed. Court decisions vary between both extremes quite widely so there no fast and sure answer here. Different laws apply to the great lakes, I believe walking the "historic high water mark" is permitted. On streams anyone has a the right to enter (must be legal entry via R.O.W. public property, etc.) and use the stream/ river as long as it was designated a "navigable waterway" which is defined as having or having had the ability to float logs for transport (old law!). DNR maintains a list of these streams.
They own up to the high water mark.
It used to be in Michigan that the state owned 3 feet from the water; however nowadays without a boat its almost impossible to enter the 3 feet without trespass
all I know is for a state other than MI...and I know it's difficult to draw a line in the water as to which side belongs to whom. I do know that in some places that if you step off the boat and onto land in some places you will go to jail (because the land belonged to the government) even if you did it because of illness or injury.
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