Skip to content

About PERC

All Areas of Focus

All Research

Donate

Maine Rockweed Harvesting Dispute Underlines Importance of Property Rights

PERC and the Pacific Legal Foundation file amicus brief in support of Maine property owners

  • Tate Watkins
  • maine-rockweed
    Photo courtesy of Appalachian Dreamer.

    If you’re unfamiliar with free-market environmentalism, you might not realize the importance of clearly defined and secure property rights to conservation. In Maine, a legal dispute over rights to harvest rockweed growing along the shoreline is highlighting that significance for all to see.

    PERC adjunct fellow and Pacific Legal Foundation staff attorney Jonathan Wood recently described the situation:

    In Maine, no one is quite sure who owns the rockweed (the local seaweed) growing in the area between high tide and low tide. The land is private property owned by whoever owns the abutting beach. But there are many other resources (fish, crabs, etc.) that are public resources, free for anyone to fish under the public trust.

    This legal uncertainty poses an environmental problem. More people and companies are trying to harvest the sea weed for fertilizer—sometimes over the objection of the landowner—risking a tragedy of the commons where harvest is unsustainable and the loss of rockweed reduces habitat for fish and other species. The Maine Supreme Court is currently considering the question in a case pitting property owners against harvesters. Arcane legal questions about the ancient public trust doctrine aside, the court’s decision—whether it favors property rights or open access—could have significant environmental impacts.

    In light of the legal uncertainty, PERC and PLF have joined together to file an amicus brief in the Maine Supreme Court in support of property owners and conservation. As the brief explains, secure property rights will make it easier for property owners and environmentalists to protect rockweed and will encourage any harvesting to be sustainable. Wood provides more background at the PLF blog:

    In Ross v. Acadian Seaplants Ltd., a company is trying to expand Maine’s public trust doctrine to allow it to harvest rockweed (a species of seaweed) from private property without the owners’ permission—and over their explicit objections. In Maine, coastal property owners own the land between high and low tide, an area where valuable rockweed grows. Many property owners, concerned that current harvesting is unsustainable and harmful to the local ecosystem, forbid harvesting on their land. Although this land is subject to public trust rights, those have been limited to “fishing,” “fowling,” and “navigation” for almost 400 years. Expanding public trust rights beyond those limits to include rockweed harvesting would destabilize property rights, increase conflict, and undermine environmental protection.

    Written By
    • Tate Watkins
      Tate Watkins
      • Managing Editor,
      • Research Fellow

      Tate Watkins is a research fellow and managing editor at PERC. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Reason, The Atlantic, The Hill, and many other outlets.

    Date
    Topics
    Related Content