Larry O. Mohn, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, PO Box 996, Verona, VA 24482

The Gathright Dam project, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was completed in 1981. As mitigation for inundating 12 miles of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries owned Jackson River, the Corps agreed to establish a public coldwater fishery below the dam. Gathright was designed for summer flow augmentation with none of the flow and dissolved oxygen problems associated with many of the other southeastern tailwaters. As a result, the 19 mile coldwater fishery was projected to be one of the best in the region. However, riparian landowners began several legal challenges in 1981 that ultimately resulted in a September 1996 Virginia State Supreme Court ruling giving exclusive private fishing rights to some riparian landowners despite the fact that the Jackson River had been ruled to be legally navigable. The legal argument used successfully by Jackson River landowners has since been used in New York to close a section of the famous Salmon River to public fishing and could be a threat to public resources throughout the east coast region.