Clearing fallen trees on creeks in western PA

[BattleRifleG3]

I've taken a few trips on some creeks in western PA, so many that I've come to get sick of the occasional downed tree.  I would like to do something about it, but that's a shaky idea.

Considering that the creeks are commonly canoed I'm assuming that they don't count as private property, though obviously the shores do.  What then is to be made of the many things found in the creeks?  Like a tree that reaches accross the creek and threatens to swamp a canoe or worse?  I've had half a mind to go down the creek some day with a bear saw and cut loose the logs that pose a serious safety hazard to boaters.  But not if it means getting into trouble for cutting someone else's tree.

I'm thinking specifically of Raccoon Creek in southwestern PA (flowing into the Ohio River), Slippery Rock Creek (western PA flowing into the Beaver River), Wolf Creek (flowing into Slippery Rock Creek) and the Shenango River (near the Ohio border, flowing between the Pymatuning and Shenango reservoirs).

Anyone know what the laws/rules/etiquette are for this?

My idea would be to make a clearing trip to make the way safe for less experienced folks in future trips.

[Graybeard]

Dunno about the legality of it but I have to wonder if you'd not be creating more of a hazard than you're solving. What's to happen to the trees when you cut them? Were you planning to try to place them on shore? Or let them float down stream? If the latter then would they not just pile up at each next obstacle and eventually create a major jam?

[BattleRifleG3]

I was thinking in terms of cutting sections out that would allow safe travel in between.  The trees I'm referring to aren't stuck because the water won't carry them, they're stuck because they cross the entire shore.  Pieces as small as I'd cut would certainly continue downstream to the gulf of Mexico, though I'm sure they'd get waterlogged long before then.

But placing such pieces on the nearby shore has its advantages.  Some of this area would be within parks, which have the usual rules of what can and cannot be cut on land, though I'm not sure how the creeks might differ, especially as the sitting log is a clear safety hazzard.  (the old Boy Scout rule I remember being that it must be dead AND down, not just one or the other).

[Cap'n Jon]

I think here (In Michigan) it is illegal to change the river bank without a permit from the DNR...While floating the creek on the farm here last fall for beaver I had to do what you are talking about from the blowdown's...I carry my hatchet so I can chop the smaller trees in half and push them off to the side of the bank...

Most of the smaller "Crick's" here in the U.P. are choked shut from trees...Guess thats what happens in the last wilderness area of the lower 48...Quite the pain trying to float them.

[BattleRifleG3]

I'm not thinking of changing the bank at all, just cutting 2-3ft pieces off of trees already in the middle of the creek.  Those pieces would be among the smaller things floating in that creek after a rain.

[Cap'n Jon]

I would just go ahead and trim them up.

We got into a discussion today about rights of a fisherman as to where he can walk on a river bank...A buddy pulled out the State regulations on traversing a stream while fishing on private property and it said you could get out and walk a bank anytime you feel walking in the river might put you in jeapordy (like getting wet!  Ha!)

I know of p[eople who have places on the river and will stack up rocks to make a small, deep pool to swin in but the DNR said you couldn't even do that...Seems the state is too picky on certain things?

[willysjeep134]

I've had half a notion to go down the Reno creek from the headwaters to where it empties into the mighty Escanaba just north of dam no3 and do the same thing. This creek would be just barely floatable if it wasn't choked with brush.

My biggest concerns weren't the property owner's rights, but how the DNR would feel about messing with stream habitat. They get really concerned when people start doing work on trout streams or anything they might have a special interest in. If it is technically navigable water there is probably some way you could legally remove hazards to navigation like blowdowns.