From Fox’s input (thanks for the local knowledge Fox), which admittedly may or may not be 100% accurate in reality, it sounds to me like the new landowner(s) do not want anyone down there other than themselves and their guests, and are trying to gather support from their neighbors. If those parking stories are true, and I suspect they are, I don’t blame the landowners one bit. No excuse whatsoever for blocking access to a landowner’s drive. I understand that a few yahoos probably ruined this for most other anglers who are respectful of that, but still. I would have been fine with people parking along my property and accessing the stream and fishing. I would have even probably been ok with the crowds at hatch times…there’s always room to find some water if you’re willing to walk a bit. But if I came down to use MY cabin and I couldn’t pull MY car into MY driveway because some yahoos blocked it, I’d be pissed and probably would be calling a towing company.
As Pat alludes to, there are two issues here…parking AND stream access/right of way. Even if one is resolved, the other needs to be resolved as well in a permanent and stable manner.
As of right now, with Penns not having been through the court system, if the rightful landowner of the land all the way down to the stream posts it, anyone wading or fishing in the stream along that property is taking a calculated risk and is subject to a potential trespassing violation if the landowner wishes to contact law enforcement. It’s a known gray area in the law.
Suppose the stream is declared navigable by the courts though…then anyone can wade/walk/fish/whatever within the high water mark of the stream legally, as long as they enter and exit the high water mark at places that are not posted against trespassing. If that happens though, the parking situation would still need to be addressed so that there would be a place to access the stream without trespassing in the cases of the banks being posted. The ideal scenario I think would be as Pat laid out…PFBC, or some other public entity purchases a small plot of land, adjacent to the stream so that there’s access and puts in a parking lot. Walk in to the high water mark from that lot, fish, walk back out within the high water mark, and leave. That’s a project I would gladly make a donation to. Nobody can stop you in that scenario. If you come to a posted stretch of streambank, you have been notified by the landowner, and you are trespassing if you step outside of the high water mark onto their bank. If you get nailed for that, you’ve earned it.
My prediction is there will still be plenty of yahoos who ignore the posting signs under the assumption they're ok if they're in the stream, park/walk/fish, and potentially trespass. The landowners hopefully will enforce against those yahoos who are there without permission. Hopefully one of them is a wealthy yahoo, or a wealthy guide or shop affiliated yahoo who is losing business because of this, and fights it, and then the court makes a ruling, one way or the other. I suspect it's likely navigable access will win out based on history and prior cases. Best case this a couple year scenario probably though. I suspect we will likely see an increase in the crowds at Poe in the meantime.
