However, the department shall with the advice and approval of the attorney general, execute agreements, writings, or relinquishments and certify to the governor such deeds as are necessary or proper to affect the sale or exchange. Chapter 79.125 RCW: AQUATIC LANDSTIDELANDS AND SHORELANDS - Washington (5) The superior court to which an appeal is taken shall hear evidence as to the value of the lands appraised and enter an order confirming, or raising, or lowering the appraisal appealed from, and the clerk of the court shall file a certified copy in the department's Olympia office. My thought has always been to bring up the Public Trust Doctrine. The use of any tidelands, shorelands, and abutting bedlands covered with less than four fathoms of water at ordinary low tide belonging to the state, and adjoining and bordering on any tract, piece, or parcel of land, which may have been reserved or acquired, or which may be reserved or acquired, by the government of the United States, for the purposes of erecting and maintaining forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, navy yards, prisons, penitentiaries, lighthouses, fog signal stations, aviation fields, or other aids to navigation, may be granted to the United States, upon payment for the rights, so long as the upland adjoining the tidelands or shorelands shall continue to be held by the government of the United States for any of the public purposes above mentioned. The answer is still unresolved. It appears clear from court decisions that navigation on the water is a public right, even if someone is floating over privately-owned aquatic lands. 79.125.710. Certain tidelands reserved for recreational use and taking of fish and shellfish. Puget Sound Integrated Modeling Framework. c 244 12; 1975 1st ex.s. (1) Upon platting and appraisal of first-class tidelands or shorelands as provided in this chapter, if the department deems it for the best public interest to offer the first-class tidelands or shorelands for lease, the department shall notify the owner of record of uplands fronting upon the tidelands or shorelands to be offered for lease if the upland owner is a resident of the state, or the upland owner is a nonresident of the state, shall mail to the upland owner's last known post office address, as reflected in the county records, a copy of the notice notifying the owner that the state is offering the tidelands or shorelands for lease, giving a description of those lands and the department's appraised fair market value of the tidelands or shorelands for lease, and notifying the owner that the upland owner has a preference right to apply to lease the tidelands or shorelands at the appraised value for the lease for a period of sixty days from the date of service of mailing of the notice. But when they are covered by water, the defendants may enter onto such water even though the water is located above the tidelands. (See Caminiti v. Boyle, 107 Wash. 2d 662, 666, 732 P.2d 989, 992 (1987)). In appraising tidelands or shorelands, the department shall appraise each lot, tract, or piece of land separately, and shall maintain a description of each lot, tract, or piece of first or second-class tidelands or shorelands, its full appraised value, the area and rate per acre at which it was appraised, and if any lot is covered in whole or in part by improvements in actual use for commerce, trade, residence, or business, on or prior to, the date of the plat or replat, the department shall enter the name of the owner, or reputed owner, the nature of the improvements, the area covered by the improvements, the portion of each lot, tract, or piece of land covered, and the appraised value of the land covered, with and exclusive of, the improvements. The same reasoning applies to citizens who walk across the wet portions of a beach at low tide. Thats when our No Trespassing signs began to go up. When the state started selling tidelands it was originally to mean low. The appraisal fixed by the court shall be final. (2) Criminal trespass in the second degree is a misdemeanor. Whenever application is made to the department by any department of the United States government for the use of any state-owned tidelands or shorelands and adjoining and bordering on any upland held by the United States for any of the purposes mentioned in RCW. If any platted street, alley, waterway, or other public place is vacated by a replat as provided for in RCW, All preference rights to purchase tidelands or shorelands, when otherwise permitted by RCW, Any accretions that may be added to any tract or tracts of tidelands or shorelands previously sold, or that may be sold, by the state, shall belong to the state and shall not be sold, or offered for sale, unless otherwise permitted by this chapter to be sold, and unless the accretions are surveyed under the direction of the department. the first individual traveling on foot for trespass. However, tideland owners could purchase the strip of land between mean low and extreme low. (a) Be construed to cancel an existing sale contract; (b) Prohibit sale or exchange of beds and shorelands where the water course has changed and the area now has the characteristics of uplands; (c) Prevent exchange involving state-owned tidelands and shorelands; (d) Be construed to prevent the assertion of public ownership rights in any publicly owned aquatic lands, or the leasing of such aquatic lands when such leasing is not contrary to the statewide public interest. As a result, I followed the story with a blog post discussing related issues. The second-class tidelands, owned by the state of Washington, situate in front of, adjacent to, or abutting upon lots 6 and 7, and that portion of lot 5, section 1, township 26 north, range 1 west, W.M., lying south of a line running due west from a point on the government meander line which is S 22 E 1.69 chains from an angle point in said meander line which is S 15 W 1.20 chains, more or less, from the point of intersection of the north line of said lot 5 and the meander line, with a frontage of 40.31 lineal chains, more or less. ( See Caminiti v. Boyle, 107 Wash. 2d 662, 666, 732 P.2d 989, 992 (1987)). Beach rights: This sand is your sand, this sand is my sand (3) In case the abutting uplands are not improved and occupied for residential purposes and the abutting upland owner has not filed an application for the lease of the lands, the department may lease the lands to any person for booming purposes under the terms and conditions of this section. Trespassing as it relates to real estate law means entering onto land without the consent of the landowner. In a 2015 case, Havens v. Cousins (PDF 5.8 mb), an Island County Superior Court Judge tried to untangle the long history of Washington state case law in a dispute about whether a commercial smelt fisherman could walk upon private tidelands or even uplands to manage his net in a legally licensed fishery. Seeking to foster economic development, however, the state sold 60% of tidelands before 1971. Sale of state-owned tidelands or shorelands to municipal corporation or state agency Authority to execute agreements, deeds, etc. (1) Sales by public auction under this chapter shall be conducted under the direction of the department or by its authorized representative. For example, a trespasser who steals . The question related to the public trust doctrine is: To what extent can people use property they dont own as a result of legal rights retained for the publics benefit. (Shine) The second-class tidelands, owned by the state of Washington, situate in front of, adjacent to, or abutting upon lots 1, 2, 3 and that portion of lot 4 lying north of the south 8.35 chains as measured along the government meander line, all in section 35, township 28 north, range 1 east, W.M., with a frontage of 76.70 lineal chains, more or less. The Public Trust Doctrine protects public ownership interests in certain uses of navigable waters and underlying lands. When any two or more persons are opposing claimants under the laws of the United States to any land in this state, and one is threatening to commit upon such land waste which tends materially to lessen the value of the inheritance and which cannot be compensated by damages and there is imminent danger that unless restrained such waste will be committed, the party, on filing his or her complaint and satisfying the court or judge of the existence of the facts, may have an injunction to restrain the adverse party. 1. (Point Whitney) The second-class tidelands, owned by the state of Washington, situate in front of, adjacent to or abutting upon lots 3, 4, and 5, section 7, township 26 north, range 1 west, W.M., with a frontage of 72.45 lineal chains, more or less. (ii) Vegetation is visibly diseased, dead, or dying and has been determined by a qualified forester or certified arborist employed or retained by, or on behalf of, an electric utility to be of such proximity to electric facilities that trimming or removal of the vegetation is necessary to avoid contact between the vegetation and electric facilities. In California, the courts have extended public trust rights to include protection of natural resources. (Cattle Point) The second-class tidelands, owned by the state of Washington, situate in front of, adjacent to, or abutting upon lot 1, section 6, lots 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, section 7, lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, section 8 and lot 1, section 5, all in township 34 north, range 2 west, W.M., with a frontage of 463.88 lineal chains, more or less. Instead of trying to keep people off of your beach, you could always, yknow, get a job, or a hobby or something. It is the duty of the department to plat for the public use harbor area in front of the portions of the shorelands of Lake Washington sold as second-class shorelands by the state of Washington as in the opinion of the department are necessary for the use of the public as harbor area. State of the Beach/State Reports/WA/Beach Access (2) On or before the time specified in the notice of sale each bidder shall deposit with the auctioneer, in cash or by certified check, cashier's check, or postal money order payable to the order of the department, or by bid guarantee in the form of bid bond acceptable to the department, an amount equal to the deposit specified in the notice of sale. denied, 400 U.S. 878 (1970)). But all that work appeared to come crashing down this winter when crews allegedly hired by Haber walked onto Shinway's property and cut down dozens of trees ranging in age from 20 to 150 years . Great article! Upon the filing of the plat of shorelands with the reservations and selections in the department's Olympia office, the title to all selections for streets, avenues, and alleys shall vest in any city or town within the corporate limits of which they are situated, otherwise in the county in which they are situated. Thats where things become murky. That of course necessitated walking along beaches owned by a wide variety of characters of differing attitudes regarding my use of their beach. Any sale that has been offered, and for which there are no bids received shall not be reoffered until it has been readvertised as specified in RCW, All sales of state-owned tidelands and shorelands otherwise permitted by RCW, (1) To determine the "highest responsible bidder" under RCW.