This article originally appeared as the President's Message column of the Summer 2024 Backcountry Journal.

By Patrick Berry

Imagine the excitement and anticipation after a long week of work as you load up the jon boat and head out to one of your favorite hunting or fishing spots. It’s going to be a glorious day, you think to yourself.

On the drive, you might ruminate about the grudge bass that you hooked a couple of times but couldn’t bring to the net, or the time you took your two young boys for their first waterfowl hunt or maybe the occasion when you just paddled around with your wife years before officially tying the knot. It’s a special place for you and countless others. And you probably never imagined you’d arrive there only to find the access illegally blocked by the adjoining landowner.

But that’s exactly what happened on Creslenn Lake in East Texas. Back in 2022, a private landowner made damn sure that no one could enjoy this treasured spot – except for himself – by illegally extending the land area between the road and the water using a backhoe to dredge up soil from the surrounding banks and installing an iron fence.

Down along the border of Henderson County, an oxbow lake that stretches for 12 miles parallel to the Trinity River has become a battleground for access to a public waterbody. Known locally as “The Cutoff,” Creslenn Lake has afforded generations of locals the right to hunt, fish, paddle and generally enjoy a variety of recreational opportunities available on public waters.

Access to this beloved resource has been affirmed by over a century of public use, as well as a “public waterbody” declaration by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. There is a well-established public right-of-way and public easement to access this navigable body of water and on two occasions the state even stocked it with Florida bass. In short, the Cutoff’s status as a public resource is not in question, even if inaction by public officials responsible for enforcing legal access is highly questionable. It might sound overly simplistic, but this really has become an issue of right vs. wrong.

The often-tenuous nature of access to public lands, waters and wildlife transcends geography. Look no further than just how much the mission of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers has resonated well beyond the region of our founding. And while there’s no qualifier or explanation needed to underscore the tremendous value of public natural resources across North America, when the right to enjoy these treasures is taken away, it might matter just a bit more in places where public resources are already limited. And in Texas, over 95% of landholdings are privately held.

So what happens when a private landowner illegally prohibits already limited access and violates a number of state and federal regulations in the process? Well, so far, nothing.

Despite three letters of formal notice by the Texas Department of Transportation regarding alteration of the transportation right-of-way and demands the fence be removed, a cease and desist order issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for illegal dredging and filling, and over $800,000 in damages documented by TPWD, the landowner’s underhanded action still stands. Hunters and anglers have rebuffed repeated attempts to privatize the Cutoff over the years, including passing a bill in 1931 that affirmed “[the Cutoff] shall not be sold and shall remain open to the public for hunting and fishing,” but that doesn’t seem to matter either.
So, what’s the barrier to enforcing the law and taking decisive action? Politics, of course. Or more accurately in this case, political connections. It’s a classic case of regular, hard-working citizens getting screwed by good-ol’-boy politics and a landowner with deep pockets.

It’s a classic case of regular, hard-working citizens getting screwed by good-ol’-boy politics and a landowner with deep pockets.

A local citizen’s group called “Save the Cutoff” was created in response to the circumstance and has filed multiple lawsuits to restore access. These efforts have garnered strong support from the Texas Rivers Protection Association and, more recently, BHA’s Texas chapter – which has contributed directly to legal fees and filed an amicus brief to the court in support of public access. It’s truly a maddening state of affairs in which citizens who have historically enjoyed recreating on the Cutoff have been draining their own financial resources to restore ownership of something that never should have been taken away in the first place. So far, close to $200,000 in legal fees have been spent taking action to restore access.

The first lawsuit filed by Save the Cutoff seeks to enforce provisions in the Clean Water Act that prohibit discharge of dredged or fill materials into waters of the United States. The second lawsuit is aimed directly at the landowner for blocking public access to a navigable waterway. This second legal action seeks to reaffirm that the Cutoff is a navigable stream, declare that the landowner violated the Texas Water Code with the placement of obstructive fill, and assert that construction of the illegal fence is a nuisance that has violated their right to fish. The third lawsuit is directed at the county and county commissioner for failure to maintain access to an adjacent roadway that has provided historic access to the Cutoff.

To date, the riprap and fill continue to pollute the water, hunters and anglers continue to be blocked by the illegal fence, and the shocking display of inaction continues to affirm that money and power matter more than clearly settled law. This is exactly why BHA exists, and knowing this could just as easily happen in your part of the world, I hope you can all find a few dollars to donate to the cause. To learn more, check out backcountryhunters.org/save_the_cutoff

-Patrick Berry, President & CEO