Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``There is a great deal at stake here,'' said Tom Evans, spokesman for the Virginia branch of Trout Unlimited.
Alleghany County Circuit Judge Duncan Byrd issued a permanent injunction against a fishing guide from Charlottesville who was arrested in 1992 on a trespassing charge while guiding anglers along the river.
The 18 landowners seeking exclusive fishing rights along a 17-mile stretch of the river ``are delighted'' by the ruling, their attorney, Mike Urbanski of Roanoke, said.
The guide, Charles Kraft, was fishing on another river Monday and was unavailable for comment. His attorney, Terry Grimes of Roanoke, was involved in a trial in Danville and also could not be reached.
But Grimes said after a hearing before Byrd in April that he expected the case to be appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court.
The landowners say they can trace title to their land to pre-Revolutionary War grants made by the king of England. The grants, called crown grants, gave them ownership of the Jackson's stream bed and exclusive right to fish the sections of the river they say they own, the landowners contend.
Grimes argued that rulings by state courts and the U.S. Supreme Court consistently have upheld the public's right to fish in navigable waterways, such as the Jackson. He said crown grants conceivably encompass a good share of the state.
Byrd ruled previously that the state court had jurisdiction of the dispute on the navigable waterway and that the landowners had exclusive fishing rights. But Grimes argued that the owners needed to show an unbroken chain of title to the land.
Byrd's latest ruling said the landowners simply had to possess the land that originally was a crown grant.
Both sides agree that the Jackson has become a valuable trout fishery, made so by public money.
The river originally could not support trout because its waters became too warm in the summer. But the Army Corps of Engineers, when it built Gathright Dam on the Bath County-Alleghany County border in the early 1970s, agreed to regulate the flow of water from the depths of the reservoir to provide cold water through the summer. In turn, the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries agreed to provide public access to the river and stock it.
Evans said that if a small percentage of people ``can lock up Virginia's aquatic resources,'' it will hinder the state's sport fishing industry.
``It's very much in Virginia's economic interest to keep sport fishing open,'' Evans said.
Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.