One subdivision of houses probably 20-some houses in there, their issues obviously were (that they didn’t) want the pond to go away (with a dam removal)… and they wanted to know who owned the bottomlands.” “On the Boardman (River), we had one big impoundment, Boardman Pond. That’s certainly what’s happened in those other lakes over in Gladwin (and Midland counties) that have now been taken out, so their property value has diminished,” he said. “Lakefront property has been a value to people who desire a parcel. In the case of impounded areas on dammed rivers, one of the draws is access to waterfront property. “The question was, once the lake went away for some of these (people), did they have that (bottomlands ownership and mineral rights) or not?” Breederland said. “They’d use 20-foot long rods that they push them through all that silt and they (notice) they are hitting the hard, we’re hitting the ball-sized boulders and different things,” he said, adding that in some cases “They’ve moved some places back to the historic beds.”īreederland said factors like the bottomland’s historical title transfers can also come up when dealing with oil wells and mineral rights royalties in an example he gave from Kalkaska County where people wanted expanded oil and gas royalties - but that depended on what bottomlands property they technically owned. The riparian land rights and bottomlands also depend on where the natural body of water is located, as opposed to an artificial waterbody.Īccording to the nonprofit Michigan Lakes and Streams Association that addresses topics like preservation and waterfront legal issues, two cases in the state’s Court of Appeals in the last 10 years have shown that “artificial lakes in Michigan do not have riparian rights.”īreederland said one method used to determine where a natural riverbed was, is to use rods to determine where the river’s natural riverbed existed in the past. The water is public, the fish are public, they’re all part of the public trust.” “Michigan riparian law on inland lakes is such that you actually own the bottom of the land underneath the water. “It matters if you’re a homeowner because do you own that land, or not?” he said. The riparian rights tend to give allowance for things like docks and anchoring boats for extended periods.īut the answer to who owns the bottomlands really depends on a host of factors such as property transfers through time shown in the title history. So, if you owned 100 feet of land on Bear Lake, you probably owned another 100 feet out into Bear Lake or whatever to the midpoint.” There are these triangle-shaped pieces that all kind of go to the middle and then it would start there.
“You take Bear Lake, or you name it, and there are these invisible (pieces) underneath the water lines. … The bottomlands are all the lands from where the new river’s edge (is) back to where it would have been underneath the edge of the former pond (or lake).”īreederland explained Michigan has riparian laws for inland lakes that usually means triangle-shaped pieces of land under the water belong to the person with bottom land ownership. “The river has a natural historic channel and that’s where it’s been reconstructed here through time.
“The pond (or lake) is there and it’s up to your house or whatever and you can see if it drops to the natural riverbed and where it would be,” he said.
Mark Breederland, of Michigan Sea Grant Extension and the Northwest Michigan Grand Traverse MSU Extension, said if a dam is removed, the bottomlands are anywhere that was formerly under water.
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