Lawmakers Pull Back Bad Bridge Access Legislation in NC

Earlier this year, North Carolina legislators introduced a bill that would have made using public bridges over rivers as put-ins and take-outs illegal. Thankfully, the language criminalizing river access was recently removed from the bill, SB 220, and is no longer a threat. We’d like to thank the many boaters that reached out to your state legislators on this issue, and the legislators that changed course. Boater outreach helped inform the legislature to step back from a bill that would have had major consequences. 

The public’s right to travel on rivers is vital to the quality of life and economy in many areas of North Carolina and the United States more broadly. This right is under constant pressure from powerful interests who either don’t understand the public’s rights, or want to end them. American Whitewater and the boating community are protectors of these rights for current and future generations. We rely on membership, donations, and activism from the river community to keep our waters open to the public.