By Vickie Welborn • vwelborn@gannett.com • June 3, 2010

DIXIE INN — A way of life could be in jeopardy in Webster Parish with the recent revelation of a major portion of popular Bayou Dorcheat long thought to be state-owned appears to not be that way at all.

It raises the question of whether the public should be fishing or hunting along what's now considered a private stretch of bayou that spans from just north of the U.S. Highway 80 Bridge in Dixie Inn to the Arkansas state line.

"It's going to really inconvenience a lot of people because they don't know about this yet. But if we can get it back into court ... I think we have a perfectly good chance of overturning it," Cotton Valley property owner Lane Merritt said of the 1926 Louisiana Supreme Court decision that claimed Bayou Dorcheat was non-navigable when Louisiana became a state in 1812. And as such, the state did not claim ownership of the bed of the bayou.

And the state land office agrees it can no longer claim ownership of the water bottom.

That would mean ownership of the waterway falls to adjacent property owners. While navigating the bayou by boat or canoe appears not to be affected, hunting and fishing is questionable.

Not impacted would be the public boat launch in Dixie Inn, or any other publicly owned land along the bayou such as the Webster Police Jury's Peterson Landing between Cotton Valley and Springhill.

"Nowhere does it indicate, even in recent court cases, the public has a right to hunt or fish on private property. That is pretty simple, but does it apply there? I hope I am very wrong. Dorcheat is just a way of life for a certain segment of people. Some think it's just a water body crossed over by a bridge. But it's much more than that," said Merritt, who has property bordering the bayou.

Merritt learned about the court case months ago in part of an ongoing effort in which he is involved with the state land office and parish officials to promote the navigability of the meandering waterway. He held out hope new information would surface countering the 84-year-old court decision.

But so far nothing disputes the case, which was discovered by an oil and gas company that was doing leasing in the area, Merritt said.

The state land office hired an investigator who assisted field representatives and "they did a tremendous amount of documentation on the bayou. They think they have a case and can prove the bayou was navigable," Merritt said. "They think if we get it back to where the Supreme Court will review it, we will be good to go."

Meanwhile, the state land office's legal staff is in conversations with the attorney general's office and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' attorneys to determine if there are any remedies needed to allow continued public use for recreational purposes, said Michael Diresto, Division of Administration communications director.

"The state will claim a right of public passage based on a civil code, meaning people still be able to use it as a servitude because it's been used for that reason for upwards of 100 years. We do understand, though, while that is something we are going to claim "» for people to use it as passage and the like "» we have heard concerns from the locals this might have kind of an adverse effect on general recreational use. Now, we're not aware of anybody making any claims that will stop that," Diresto said.

He's uncertain how long it will be before the attorneys come up with an answer. "The first question is whether there will be any legal claims to stop people from using it. We don't' even know if that is going to happen."

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Jackson, who represents the Webster Police Jury, is still researching what, if anything, the Police Jury can do. Whether Bayou Dorcheat is considered navigable or not controls a lot of issues, said Jackson, including minerals ownership, fishing, hunting and bank access.

Webster Police Juror Daniel Thomas, of Springhill, said he and Police Juror Steve Duggan, of Shongaloo, will push to get a legal opinion as soon as possible on whether the public's access to the bayou should be restricted until "we can see legally what we can do. "» It's like we have one blow after another. It's unbelievable this could happen. People have been fishing on that beautiful, beautiful bayou for many, many centuries. It's just unbelievable."

He questions why no one dug deeper decades ago before the judge ruled in the matter. It shouldn't be hard, Thomas said, to come up with information to prove the bayou was used to float logs and other things in the early 1800s.

Merritt's reason for bringing the information to light is to inform property owners of potential liability issues. "I'm hoping generally the public will be unaffected by this. But I know because of hunting clubs and people afraid of liability where it's always been legal and it may not be now. That's really a big concern of mine," he added.