Property rights law: You can look it up

In the Nov. 25 edition of the Inter Lake, Mr. Wes James asserts, “Private property rights apply to the land which is at an elevation above the mean high water line while the state owns the land which is below the mean high water line.” 

Although Mr. James must have conducted exhaustive legal research to arrive at that conclusion, he somehow overlooked Section 70-16-201 of the Montana Code Annotated, which states that, “... the owner of the land, when it borders upon a navigable lake or stream, takes to the edge of the lake or stream AT LOW-WATER MARK” (emphasis added).

However, Mr. James can take solace in the fact that all the self-proclaimed constitutional law “experts” in the Flathead are equally as ignorant of the subject matter of their letters to the editor. —Al Weed, Kalispell