ATLANTA – Allowing canoes and kayaks only on Georgia rivers and streams deemed navigable would ruin an outdoor recreation industry that brings in billions of dollars, outfitters and paddling enthusiasts told a legislative study committee Friday.
“Tourism is a significant economic driver in Georgia,” Amanda Dyson-Thornton, executive director of the Georgia Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus, told members of the House Study Committee on Navigable Streams and Related Matters during a hearing at the Unicoi State Park & Lodge near Helen. “Public access to Georgia’s rivers and streams is crucial to sustaining Georgia’s outdoor recreation economy.”
The study committee was formed this year as the next step in a process aimed at guaranteeing Georgians the right to hunt and fish in the state’s navigable rivers and streams without violating private property rights.
Fishing rights Georgians have enjoyed for generations came into question last year when a property owner on the Yellow Jacket Shoals portion of the Flint River banned fishing there and sued the state to enforce it. When the Georgia Department of Natural Resources entered into a consent decree promising to enforce the ban, Gov. Brian Kemp and lawmakers moved quickly to pass a bill codifying public fishing rights into state law.