Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Oregon Land Board declared Tuesday that an eighty-nine-mile stretch of the Rogue River is navigable.  Pete Springer explains what that means.

The Land Board took up the issue of the navigability of the Rogue over ten years ago.

The Josephine County D.A. wanted to know if it was legal to charge people with trespassing for being on the river bank next to private property.

It’s not -- according to the decision by the Land Board.

The definition of navigability is that the state owns the underlying beds and banks of the river-- up to the ordinary high water mark.

Louise Solliday is the director of the State Land Board.

Louise Solliday: “The public has the right to use the river, to get out of their boats, to recreate, to fish, to enjoy the public resources that the river provides.”

The decision affects the Rogue from Lost Creek to Grave Creek -- the portion below Grave Creek is already considered navigable.

Solliday says she hopes the legislature adopts a “floatage easement” -- similar to the law in Montana -- to avoid this kind of issue in the future.