STREAM POSTING SHOT DOWN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 28, 1992                   TAG: 9201280340
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
STREAM POSTING SHOT DOWN
The General Assembly kept stream beds safe for sportsmen on Monday, shooting down a bill that would have made it legal to post waterways against hunting and fishing.
Two Roanoke Valley delegates fought hard for the bill, saying that it only cemented what is already common practice and urging urban area representatives to defer to the wishes of rural landowners.
Posting private streams "has been law west of the Blue Ridge Mountains lo these many years, or that was the understanding in our part of the state," said Del. Clifton Woodrum, D-Roanoke, who sponsored the bill.
Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, joined Woodrum in the fight to let landowners with property straddling non-navigable streams to prosecute anyone who tried to wade up the waterway to hunt or fish.
As Virginia law now stands, stream beds are open to the public, so that even if one runs through posted, private property, an angler can wade through and fish all he pleases. Hunting and fishing groups had lobbied against the bill.
Cranwell said hunters often shoot deer on posted property while standing in a public stream, and then leave the carcasses for landowners to worry about.
But other lawmakers said closing stream beds would be an unnecessary restriction of rights.
Del. Bernard Cohen, D-Alexandria, pointed out that private ownership of stream beds has always been rare. Only someone with a royal land grant from before 1792 in the eastern part of Virginia and before 1802 in the west is said to own the stream on his property, Cohen said.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB