Interesting Article about DNR Authority

From the Lakeland Times

...The Tom Baer pier case makes this point explicit. In that case, the DNR hounded Mr. Baer for having piers they claimed interfered with the public's rights in navigable waters.

Baer said they didn't, but, in any event, he claimed the agency had no jurisdiction because the rule governing piers required a complaint from a third-party for the DNR to act. There had been no complaint, just DNR intervention.

The DNR, however, said it wasn't bringing the complaint under the specific requirements of the rule, but under a general Public Trust grant of authority found in state statutes.

Ultimately, the courts threw out as silly and baseless the DNR's claim that the piers interfered with navigable waters, but along the way the agency's jurisdiction was upheld.
 Though the rule's language may have precluded the DNR from applying its specific provisions to the Baers' piers, the court ruled, nothing in the rule precluded it from bringing an action to halt a "possible violation of the statutes relating to navigable waters or a possible infringement of the public rights relating to navigable waters."

The DNR maintained, and the court agreed, the agency had not only a statutory authority but a statutory duty to proceed against the piers if it believed them to be a Public Trust violation.