The Louisiana Constitution, Civil Code Articles, and statutes that deal with State ownership of 

 land have the potential for greatly affecting marsh management activities. These laws provide that 

 the State of Louisiana owns as public holdings the running waters, the waters and bottoms of 

 naturally navigable water bodies (rivers, streams, bayous, and lakes), the territorial sea, the seashore, 

 (La. Civil Code Article 450) and the banks of navigable lakes (Miami Corporation v. State 186 

 La. 784, 173 So. 315, 325(1936)). State public holdings are analogous to those owned under the 

 common law doctrine of public trust. The State owns public areas for the benefit of the people 

 so that its "ownership" is more of the nature of guardianship and as such, they are inalienable, 

 imprescriptible, and exempt from seizure (AN. Yiannopoulos, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise, Vol. 

 2 §34). Although it seems to have been widely ignored by the Courts, Louisiana law also provides 

 that the State owns the waters and beds of all rivers, streams, lagoons, lakes, and bays whether or 

 not navigable that were not under direct ownership as of 12 August 1910 (La. R.S. 9:1101). In 

 addition, Louisiana claims ownership of the waters, beds, and shores of the Gulf of Mexico and 

 "arms" of the Gulf and the lands covered by those waters at high tide within the State's boundaries 

 (La. R.S. 49:3). An arm of the sea has been defined as "a body of water located in the immediate 

 vicinity of the open gulf that is directly overflowed by the tides" (AN. Yiannopoulos, Louisiana 

 Civil Law Treatise, Vol. 2 §45). The Louisiana Constitution prohibits the alienation of the beds 

 of navigable water bodies except for reclamation of eroded land by the affected landowner (Article 

 IX §3 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974) which must be permitted by DSL (La. R.S. 41:1702). 



The banks of navigable rivers, streams, and lakes are defined as the area of land between 

 ordinary low and high water marks (La. Civil Code Article 456). The seashore is the land between 

 the low water mark and the mark of the highest winter tides (La. Civil Code Article 451). The 

 banks of rivers and streams may be and usually are privately owned but in the case of navigable 

 rivers and streams such ownership is subject to the right of public use (La. Civil Code Article 456). 

 The beds of non-navigable rivers and streams belong to the riparian land owners (owners of the 

 land adjoining the river or stream) (La. Civil Code Article 506) and the beds of non-navigable lakes 

 are subject to private ownership. Again this may be limited to those beds privately owned before 

 12 August 1910. 



Louisiana law defines the buildup of sediments or accretion that is formed successively and 

 imperceptibly on the bank of a river or stream as alluvion. The same law defines land exposed by 

 water receding imperceptibly from a bank of a river or stream as dereliction. In either case the 

 newly formed land belongs to the riparian landowner (La. Civil Code Article 499). This right of 

 acquiring alluvion or dereliction does not exist on the seashore or the shores of lakes (La. Civil 

 Code Article 500). Therefore, if alluvion or dereliction occurred on the seashore or the shore of 

 a navigable lake, the newly formed land would belong to the State. Conversely when the shore 

 of the sea or a navigable lake, river, or stream erodes, the newly formed water bottom becomes 

 property of the State unless the owner of the eroded land takes the statutorily required steps to 

 reclaim it (Miami Corporation v. State 186 La. 784, 173 So. 315, 325 (1936)). Such reclamation 

 efforts can be very expensive and are not often done if the erosion is extensive. 



Artificial water courses (canals) are public water bodies subject to public use when constructed 

 on State owned land (AN. Yiannopoulos, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise, Vol. 2 §47). When canals 

 are constructed by public authorities on private land pursuant to a right of way servitude, they are 

 private holdings subject to public use (Hunter Co. v. Ulrich 8 So. 2d 531 (1942)). Canals 

 constructed on private land for private purposes have been held to be private with no right of 

 public use (Vaughn v. Vermilion Corp. 444 U.S. 206). Therefore, if the owner of a private canal 

 decided to exclude the public from using the canal he could erect barricades to keep out boat 

 traffic. The same right would apply to a non-navigable, privately owned river or stream. 



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