Coastal Services Center

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The Advantages of Incorporating Trust Responsibilities into Management Programs (2 of 3)

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Ensuring the Protection of the Public Trust (Continued)

Delineating Public and Private Rights

Codification of the Public Trust Doctrine has enabled states to

• Develop a common understanding of the scope and extent of riparian rights
• Establish an underlying proprietary foundation for regulatory programs that might otherwise be subject to takings challenges; courts consider a “taking” of property to occur when government action directly interferes with or substantially disturbs the owners’s use and enjoyment of property
• Use these regulatory programs to offset private uses of trust lands and waters with compensatory mechanisms such as lease fees

Balancing Uses

A regulatory framework for administering Public Trust resources is also necessary for resolving conflicts among public uses. Because the doctrine protects particular uses, states have been able to better justify management that prioritizes or limits particular uses.