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Texas Agriculture Archive

January 17, 2003

78th Legislative session starts in high gear

It's finally arrived—the 78^th Legislative session was kicked off by the swearing in of both House and Senate members on Jan. 14. Before the swearing-in even took place, hundreds of bills had already been filed. One piece of legislation that Texas Farm Bureau strongly supports and is following closely is SB 155 by Judith Zaffarini of Laredo. This piece of legislation is intended to protect the public waterways of Texas and the landowners along their banks.

SB 155 and its companion bill, HB 305 by Robert Puente of San Antonio, would prohibit the operation of motor vehicles in or on a protected freshwater area. Freshwater area is defined as "the bottom, bed, or bank of any navigable river or stream and does not include the portion that lies below tidewater limits or is privately owned." Owners of the adjacent uplands and the owner's lessees may continue to operate motor vehicles on these waterways if they are using the waterways for a reasonable purpose related to agriculture.

The idea for this legislation was brought to lawmakers by local streambed users and landowners that are adjacent to the waterways. Although landowners recognize that not all motor vehicle operators contribute to trespassing, they have witnessed a dramatic increase in trespassing incidents as motor vehicle recreation has increased. The lack of a simple mechanism to delineate public and private lands poses the problem for those that may not even know they are trespassing. The gradient boundary is the legal boundary between public and private lands, but in many cases, the gradient boundary has never been surveyed on most waterways or has changed due to a flood.

In addition to trespassing, concerns of the impact this type of recreation has on the state's waterways is significant. Recent studies show less game fish in parts of rivers used heavily by motor vehicles compared to other parts of the river beds where vehicles have not traveled. There is also a safety concern as the number of incidents including poaching and other inappropriate public behavior has increased in recent years as traveling on waterways by motor vehicles has increased.

Texas Farm Bureau will continue to follow this piece of legislation and encourage its members to contact their state legislators.