Asking "Special" Landowner Permission

[Wildbrowntrout]

I was doing my usually scan of the internet looking for the next fishing spot and I found myself a little gem of a creek on the wild trout list that I MUST fish. However, doing more research on the owner of the property, I figured out that there is no house on the ground, just the land and creek. I found myself puzzled as I saw an address in another town, as I wanted to get a hold of the owner. Well, it turns out the owner is a Berks County Commissioner. There's no phone number of any sort to contact him, and it is quite a ways out of the way of the spot. My question is how do I go about doing this? PS. This commissioner is also into farmland preservation, (the ground is marked as farmland, and a big plot of it), so maybe asking about cleaning up all the trash we find and making sure to care for fish and leave no trace behind would be good. Mainly just looking how to contact him without driving all the way out there. (Only 16. Can only drive with permit and still in school with heavy work) Thanks guys.

 

[dc410]

PM sent

 

[Chaz]

EMAIL.

 

[just_jon]

Wildbrowntrout - Hope thing work out well for you in contacting the land owner and obtaining permission to fish the property. Very impressive to see a 16 year old going about this the right way.

 

[Swattie87]

One concern I had about Chaz’s email suggestion that I thought was worthy of some conversation...

If the landowner is a Berks County Commissioner (and you can therefore likely find an email for him/her online), I’d be hesitant to just email them at that email address out of the blue. I don’t think I’d appreciate someone I don’t know using my work email address to ask me a question about personal matters, such as access to fishing a stream I own land on. I’m not sure that’s entirely appropriate, again, given that’s their professional work email. I don’t think I’d respond to an email like that on my work email.

I think a more appropriate approach would be to make the trip (with your parents) and politely knock on their door. Say on a Saturday at a reasonable time of day. Explain the research you’ve done on the stream, and ask if it’d be ok if you fished it. Wouldn’t hurt probably as you mention to throw in that you’d be glad to help clean and maintain the stream via your access to it. Making the trip to ask personally I think goes a lot further, and I know I’d be much more inclined to accommodate a request that was presented in that manner, with a smile and a handshake included.

Not sure I’m entirely right on the email piece, just doesn’t quite sit right with my gut. My 2 cents worth of free advice.

 

[sarce]

Email worked for me once, however, the property's website advertised their private nature trails, and based on the response I received I was not the first person to ask that way. I asked the owner if I could use the private trails to access the portion of the stream on public land to avoid an excessively long hike, and his response was to ask for a small donation and he would give me a parking permit and let me fish the private property as well. FWIW, and maybe not applicable to this situation.