Fishing preserve entrepreneur Donny Beaver has dropped his court case against state agencies, thus closing the book on a lengthy battle over the public’s right to fish the Little Juniata River, one of the state’s most coveted trout waters.

In a letter to Commonwealth Court dated Monday, Mr. Beaver’s attorneys indicated that he would drop his challenge to a ruling handed down a year ago by Huntingdon County Common Pleas Judge Stewart Kurtz, stating that the Little Juniata is navigable and open to the public.

Mr. Beaver had claimed that a section of the river was private and could be fished only by members of his club.

I’d love to seal this one with alliteration (because alliteration makes me happy, that’s why), but I’m afraid “Bye-bye Beaver” would be a little premature.

He’s firing up the same operation on Lake Erie, and is moving West to Colorado, where presumably he’ll continue stocking obese fish in waters that can’t really support them, playing havoc with fisheries above and below him.

This isn’t all good news: withdrawing the appeal also prevented this ruling from becoming a legal precedent across the entire state, though certainly related cases would use this as support for the protection of public waters.

Still, for now… (wait for it), Bye Bye, Beaver.

See you on the (public) river, Tom Chandler.

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