I’ve got a serving of humble pie and a side order of crow to chew on this week thanks to what I wrote two weeks ago.

You may recall (and if you don’t, there’s no need to go back and look) I wrote about a kayaking day trip I took with friends in Milbridge. The six of us had a great day exploring the area, stopping a few times to rest or stretch and grab a bite.

One island we stopped on, Current, is privately owned, and the owners sent me an e-mail soon after my column appeared reminding me of that fact and that our intrepid band had trespassed. An occasional visitor might be expected, the owners told me, but promoting it as a stopover was unacceptable. I quickly apologized in a return e-mail.

Besides being a bit embarrassed by the experience, it got me thinking about turning it into something educational. The island owners thought it a good idea as well.

I turned first to the Maine Island Trail Association for some guidance since it has been dealing with issues such as this for 15 years. Then I began an extensive search of the Internet to dig up what I could to help clarify the issue of access.

Bottom line? Unless you have owner permission to use an island, it’s best not to land on it – you’re likely trespassing. The inter-tidal zone, that area between the high and low water marks, is owned by the land owner. That zone can extend out as far as 1,650 feet from the high-water mark in areas where there are tidal flats.

The MITA guidebook touches on a little history of access. “For years, private island owners lived with ‘permissive trespass,’ where harmless use was more or less expected and accepted. This friendly tradition has long been a part of Maine life on the islands and the mainland, and still holds true in the case of many owners, who willingly share their lands with others. But times – and customs – are changing, brought about in part by vandalism, thoughtlessness, skyrocketing land values, and a common, but not entirely, urban tendency to acquire property and shut it off from others…”

There are thousands of islands out there – 5,000-6,000 according to Steve Spencer, outdoor recreation specialist with the Bureau of Parks and Lands, which oversees the 1,100 that the state owns. Of that number, only about 50 are available for recreational use. Another dozen or so fall into the category of islands where people live year round. The public can visit and there may be limited recreational use such as bicycle riding or hiking. Fifty-two of the privately owned islands are open for recreational use, including camping, for MITA members.

And there are 5,299.9 miles of coastline (2,793.3 of mainland coast and 2,506.6 of island shoreline) in Maine. Of that, 7 percent are publicly owned, according to the Marine Law Institute of the University of Maine School of Law. That’s about 370 miles.

A brochure on the state-owned islands that are open for general recreation is available from the Department of Conservation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands. You can reach them at the Harlow Building, AMHI Complex, 22 State House Stations, Augusta 04333-0022 or call 287-3821 and ask for “Your Islands and Parks on the Coast.”

What’s the advice to boaters who wish to use islands not on this list or in the MITA guidebook? Contact the island owner and ask permission, or avoid the island all together. Good luck, by the way, trying to find out who owns what. Property owner lists should be available from your local assessor’s office. Check your Gazetteer first so you’ll know which town to visit. You’ll have to do this days or weeks ahead of time.

While it seems that most of the property out there is out of bounds, the picture’s not totally bleak. There are a few means of landing on this inter-tidal zone and actually using it, as long as you carry a shotgun, a clam rake, or fishing pole. More on that in a moment.

Maine and Massachusetts, their past inextricably linked, are the only coastal states where private property rights extend to the low water mark. That means that if you own coastal property, your seaward property line is where the tide stops ebbing (as long as it’s less than 1,650 feet from the high water mark). That area, open to public use in others states, is considered private property open only to certain uses stemming back to the 1647 Colonial Ordinance which enumerated fishing, fowling, and navigation.

You might remember the Moody Beach case in Maine which served (some say) to clarify coastal property owner rights. In that 1986 case some 28 of the 100 homeowners along the one-mile beach in Wells filed a “quiet action” in Superior Court seeking a declaration preventing the public from “walking, swimming, sunbathing or using the beach in front of their homes,” according to the Marine Law Institute’s published guide, “Public Shoreline Access and the Moody Beach Case.”

I remember, from working in Ogunquit during the early 1970s, walking on that wide, sandy beach. Maybe I was part of the problem? The Marine Law Institute summary says that the property owners were concerned about the increase in public use of Moody Beach. The town took a different view. It didn’t perceive those of us who used the beach as trespassers and therefore wouldn’t take action, so the property owners went to court.

In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that it was OK for the public to use that inter-tidal zone (the beach). But in Superior Court in 1987 it was decided that the 1986 ruling was unconstitutional. Then in 1989 the Maine Supreme Court decided that the public only had the right to use this zone for uses specifically mentioned in the 1647 Colonial Ordinance – those “reasonably incidental or related to fishing, fowling or navigation.”

Specifics are not addressed, and from what I read, they are still being decided on a case-by-case basis. The Marine Law Institute says, “[F]ishing includes digging for worms and clams, and the taking of shellfish. A person has the right to be on the privately owned inter-tidal area as long as he is engaged in those activities…” Fowling “is generally interpreted to mean bird hunting.”

Here’s what the Marine Law Institute has to say about navigation: “[It] has been construed to mean that the public can sail over the inter-tidal lands, can moor craft upon them, and can allow vessels to rest upon the inter-tidal land when the tide is out. These activities may be conducted for profit, such as ferry services in which the boat operator picks up and discharges passengers on intertidal land…”

General recreational uses, however, are not included. The Marine Law Institute says “navigation” does not include “the right to use private tidelands for general recreational uses such as strolling along the beach … sunbathing, picnicking, bathing or Frisbee throwing.”

It’s not crystal clear how liberally one can interpret the term navigation, and whether you get accused of trespassing is going to depend on the individual island owner. But to be legal, you need to get permission if you plan to land on a privately owned island and have lunch.

Jeff Strout can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.