The OEC is working in court and in the sand to protect public access to our beaches and favorite fishing spots, Lake Erie’s coast and to stop an attempt to privatize the Lake Erie Shoreline and open it up to uncontrolled commercial development. The OEC has teamed up with sportsmen and fellow environmental-conservation groups in this effort.
In this video, Jack Shaner, Deputy Director of the Ohio Environmental Council, discusses private versus public land.
UPDATE: Ohio Supreme Court Weighs in On Public Access to Shoreline
UPDATE: The Ohio Supreme Court has reaffirmed that the state's trust over Lake Erie extends to the 'natural shoreline.' Read the full story here.
The fate of Ohio's Lake Erie shoreline now rests in the hands of the Ohio Supreme Court. For centuries, the ordinary high water mark has been recognized by legal precedent as the traditional boundary between public and private land.
However, Ohio's 11th District Court of Appeals ruled in the Merrill v. the Ohio Department of Natural Resources case (the Shoreline Case) that the water's edge, not the ordinary high water mark, is the boundary. In response, the Ohio Environmental Council, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and state attorney general's office filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Ohio.
The OEC and NWF argued that the state of Ohio and its citizens own, and have the right to access, Lake Erie's natural shoreline and that an ambiguous border limits that access.
In February, the Court heard oral arguments on the Shoreline Case. Stephen Carney, Assistant State Solicitor General, argued the case on behalf of the State of Ohio, NWF, and the OEC. The seven justices peppered each side with a barrage of questions.
Questions included:
the history and extent of the state's authority to protect the shore for the people of Ohio;
why the public should have access to the Lake Erie shore; and
what the people could and could not do on that narrow strip of land.
In the end, it was clear that many of the justices understood that this case was more than just a simple property line dispute, but that their decision on this case could have reverberations on the future of Lake Erie and set a precedent for whether the state can guard the public trust.
All arguments have been heard, all the briefs have been filed, and soon the nearly five-year legal battle may be over.
We are confident that the Ohio Supreme Court ultimately will respect the precedence established by its predecessors and once again recognize the ordinary high water mark as the landward boundary of Ohio's Great Lake.
