Removing Tree Barriers From Public Waters

November 19, 2009

Question: I was traveling in my boat up Butte Creek (a public waterway) recently when I was prevented from continuing due to a tree that had fallen across the creek. I am wondering if I would be legally allowed to cut the tree or its branches so that I can pass through with my boat. I consulted two different friends who thought I could but for different reasons. One thought I could cut the tree out because it was disrupting the environment, and the other thought I could because I would be unclogging a block in a running stream of water. Neither of their answers were persuasive so I figured I would ask somebody who would really knows the laws. (Tyler R.)

Answer: Although you may be traveling along a public waterway, removal of the tree blocking your passage is the responsibility of the landowner or the public agency managing the property that the creek flows through. According to Lt. John Laughlin, public waterways allow for boaters to float through public and private properties but all vegetation is the property and responsibility of the landowners. If safe passage requires more than just pushing the vegetation to the side to allow you through, you’ll need to contact the landowners to deal with it. Depending on the severity of the tree barrier and magnitude of the removal project, the landowner may be required to get a streambed alteration agreement (FGC 1600) from the Department of Fish and Game (DFG). A tree should not constitute a fish passage blockage, but if it did, DFG should be contacted.

A good question, but the guy's friends were misleading.  A tree in a stream is not "disrupting the environment".  Rather, it's providing a multitude of benefits to the stream and its inhabitants.  Back in "the old days", we used to pull wood out of stream channels because we thought it was bad for the stream.  That practice effed up a lot of streams and led to declines in fish populations.  Nowadays we do our best to recruit woody debris into stream channels, sometimes even utilizing helicopters to do it.  Wood is good!

As for the second friend's assertion that the tree is "clogging the stream": it won't be there for long, and the only thing it's blocking are people and their boats.  Salmon are really good at navigating their way through log jams.

A good question, but the guy's friends were misleading.  A tree in a stream is not "disrupting the environment".  Rather, it's providing a multitude of benefits to the stream and its inhabitants.  Back in "the old days", we used to pull wood out of stream channels because we thought it was bad for the stream.  That practice effed up a lot of streams and led to declines in fish populations.  Nowadays we do our best to recruit woody debris into stream channels, sometimes even utilizing helicopters to do it.  Wood is good!

As for the second friend's assertion that the tree is "clogging the stream": it won't be there for long, and the only thing it's blocking are people and their boats.  Salmon are really good at navigating their way through log jams.

Thank you, Chris, for posting this.  I see the effects of wood removal all over Humboldt and the Eel, and I see excellent habitat around log jams that aren't f*#$'d with.  There are STILL people trying to remove wood from streambeds around here...