New Mexico landowners sue state over waterway access on private property

 New Mexico’s Supreme Court has made it clear, the state’s waterways are public and private landowners can’t fence people out. However, now a group of those landowners are challenging the idea and asking for the federal courts to get involved.

The state Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling guaranteed the public’s right to walk or wade in New Mexico waterways. Now, five property owners claim they have a right to keep trespassers out of their property or get compensated.

The private property owners are looking for a federal court to weigh in on what they believe is their right to block water access. The lawsuit challenges the 2022 New Mexico Supreme Court ruling that says anyone can use all of the state’s creeks and streams even on private property.

Last year, state leaders, including New Mexico Attorney Genatereral Raúl Torrez, vowed to crack down on fenced-off waterways through lawsuits.

“Then that’s when the Attorney General and the Department of Game and Fish started coming after property owners who were exercising the right to exclude that they always had had,” said Attorney Christopher Kieser, Pacific Legal Foundation...more