DUCK, DUCK, WHOSE?
There’s a piece of land on the far side of Crowley Lake, right before Benton Crossing Road truns away from the lake and heads toward Deadman Summit. Duck hunters, anglers, and waterfowl enthusiasts, alike, have frequented it for years as a recreational access point. Its proximity to BLM land, and propensity for churning out quality game, year after year, have made it something of a local treasure.
But, it’s not public land. It never has been. And recently, a parcel of it was sold for private development.
“There’s a road there that intersects [with] private property. It’s now being developed,” explained Rhonda Duggan, Mono County’s District 2 Supervisor. “There is a question by those who have used it traditionally about whether they have access or not.”
But, as Duggan explained, that question has been answered by nothing short of magnanimity from both sides—the newly-minted property owners, and the recreational users.
“We’ve talked to the private landowners,” said Duggan. “They’re not looking to prohibit access to the lake.”
Duggan explained that any precautions taken by the area’s property owners are not intended to restrict entry for recreational use, but rather, to slow down vehicle and foot traffic on the access road, and the perimeter of their residence.
“There’s a gate that doesn’t lock with a carabiner on it, and they’ve posted no trespassing signs … but that’s only intended to discourage people from walking around their yard … the curiosity-seekers,” said Duggan.
But while no official restrictions have yet been enforced against lakefront access, Joe Contaldi—owner and lead guide of the local Performance Anglers Guide Service—believes that there has been an aesthetic loss in the name of private development.
“I have clients asking me about it all the time. They say ‘What is that? What is that shit?’” said Contaldi. “They’re paying for the view. And it’s an eyesore. But, you know, what can you do?”
Still, Contaldi, who has been guiding in the Eastern Sierra for over 20 years, has not been surprised to see the Crowley landscape changing.
“I’ve always looked at it like, ‘Man, that’s a little piece of private property there,’ and ‘Thank God no one’s going to put a bunch of houses on there,’” said Contaldi. “But I guess it finally happened.”
Chris Passas—angler, hunter, and owner of the Eastern Sierra Guiding Service—has experienced a similar reaction from his own clients, but acknowledges that private interests aren’t doing anything wrong.
Passas explained, in the hypothetical: “Listen, if it was you that had millions of dollars and could do it, you would. But you can’t. I can’t either. But I have to respect the [property] of the people who can.”
Where Passas is weary, however, is with regard to the issues of liability presented in granting access to the general public on land that is privately owned.
Passas, who leases 14,000 acres for recreational use in the name of his guiding service, has firsthand experience with the legal implications of trespassing. According to Passas, a common misconception of novice hunters is that game retrieval is not subject to property jurisdiction.
“Everybody thinks you can just retrieve your game. That is not the law. The law is if you’re trespassing, you’re trespassing.”
The Bridgeport native also acknowledged that, when it comes to historical land use, attitudes do not change over as quickly as land titles change hands.
“It’s never the guys that respect the land you have to worry about. It’s the guys you don’t know—the guys that are pissed off because they can’t go hunt where they want to, when they want to …where they’ve been hunting, supposedly, their whole lives.”
For now, though, all that remains between the public and throughway access are 3 unlocked gates, and a number of signs redirecting vehicle traffic, and promising a “Right to Pass, by Permission & Subject to Control of Owner.”
“Everyone’s trying to work together at this point,” said Duggan. “[The landowners] want to make sure that everyone who’s been out there before will continue to use it, responsibly.”
