Rough waters--controversy brewing over riverbank access in Forestville

Kayakers, canoers claim private security keeping people off of public river 'beach.'

photo credit: Courtesy UC San Diego, NOAA, Scripps, Shawn Boland
The Russian River downstream of the Hacienda Bridge in Forestville

Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water, there's a new kerfuffle brewing along the Russian River.

Lynda Hopkins is the Sonoma County supervisor representing the area. Hopkins looked into a series of complaints aired on social media about incidents along a stretch of riverbank in Forestville after KRCB News reached out to her, Sonoma County Regional Parks and California State Parks.

"What we're sort of hearing about is folks attempting to access the beach from the river side and that actually being defended by a security guard and also a string of buoys," Hopkins said.

A representative of Sonoma County Regional Parks said they were not aware of any incidents, although the area in question is not under the system's jurisdiction.

Turf battles along the river are nothing new. Hopkins said she looked into the claims and spoke with members of a local homeowners association.

"They said it was sort of protecting a swimming area, and I don't know if it's purposeful or accidental but it appears that the buoys now are in very, very shallow area where you couldn't actually swim, like probably ankle deep, and that it is actually attempting to sort of prohibit watercraft from being able to pull up on the beach at all. And the buoys actually even say, they are sort of painted on, and it actually says, "hacienda Private Beach No Canoes." That would not be true---it's not a private beach, up to the ordinary high water mark. I don't believe that there's an ability for any individual to prohibit watercraft from landing on a public beach," Hopkins said.

KRCB News has reached out to the Hacienda Improvement Association; we will bring you more on this story when we are able to speak with an association representative.

From her perspective, the dispute centers on law not universally well understood by the public.

"The question is, who owns the beaches, right? In the Lower Russian River, Hopkins said.

"And, the fact is, that up to the ordinary high water mark, that doesn't mean a crazy flood event, the ordinary high water mark, which typically is basically where vegetation ends and typically in the Russian River its kind of a gravel beach at that point, that is actually sovereign land," Hopkins added.

Sovereign, to which Hopkins refers....is a fixture of British common law,

It's been imported into the state code, designating certain areas as public lands.

Like along the ocean, without a public trail or easement, public areas might only be reachable from the water, either by swimming or boating in.

"You cannot go trespassing on private property in order to access the public trust lands," Hopkins said.

Hopkins added that county code enforcement would likely investigate should the agency receive a formal complaint, and that the agency could also forward information to the State Lands Commission, which has jurisdiction over easements.

Asked if an amenable solution be found in time for the coming July 4th holiday weekend, Hopkins replied, "Hoping that we can all agree on what the state of the law is and also the public's right to access the beach. unfortunately, thisis a problem in some cases up and down the river where folks improperly chase canoers, kayakers swimmers away from beaches that they don't actually own," Hopkins said.