Who is allowed to walk on the beach? It depends on where you live

The Conversation · 🇦🇺 public Australia · Jun 09, 2026 · 1183 words · By Melissa Scanlan; Will Matuska

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What to know about Who is allowed to walk on the beach? It depends on where you live

The article discusses the legal complexities and disputes surrounding public access to beaches in the United States, focusing on the 'public trust doctrine'. It highlights specific legal battles in Wisconsin and Maine, as well as the impact of seawalls and local government restrictions on shoreline access.

Propaganda risk 10%

Claims checked 19

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center75%

Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Summer is here – the perfect time to take a walk on a beach.

Why it matters

But doing so is not always as simple as it might sound.

Common ground

In Wisconsin, for instance, a legal case has stretched for months over whether Paul Florsheim may keep walking on a Lake Michigan beach he has walked for over 50 years.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Who is allowed to walk on the beach? It depends on where you live?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that The concept originated in Roman law and was carried through English common law into the laws of Britain’s American colonies, and on to the rest of the United States?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/who-is-allowed-to-walk-on-the-beach-it-depends-on-wh…

analyticsAnalysis

10%

Propaganda Score

confidence: 95%

Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 19 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 9

check_circle Corroborated 4

info Single Source 3

verified Verified By Reference 1

help Insufficient Evidence 1

verified Verified 1

verified

Claim 1: “The concept originated in Roman law and was carried through English common law into the laws of Britain’s American colonies, and on to the rest of the United States.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of generic Wikipedia entries for the word 'Public' and 'Catholic Church', which do not mention the Roman law origins of the public trust doctrine.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In the United States, the Catholic Church is the largest single Christian denomination and the second-largest religious tradition after Protestantism. As of 2024, an estimated 19% to 22% of the adult…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_in_the_United_…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The most commonly used language in the United States is English (specifically American English), which is the national language and de facto official language. While the U.S. Congress has never declar…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_States

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Catholic dioceses and archdioceses of the United States which include both the dioceses of the Latin Church, which employ the Roman Rite and other Latin liturgical rites, and various other diocese…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_dioceses_in_t…

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 2: “It is well settled federal law that as states joined the union, the U.S. government transferred to those states the ownership of navigable waters and the beds beneath them, to be held in trust for all the people.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of Wikipedia entries for the letter 'U' and 'YouTube', which are completely irrelevant to federal law and navigable waters.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — U (minuscule: u) is the twenty-first letter and the fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of other western European languages and others world…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U

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web search NEUTRAL — Ú (minuscule: ú), known as U-acute, is a Latin-script character composed of the letter U and an acute accent. It is found in the Czech, Dobrujan Tatar, Faroese, Hungarian, Icelandic, Karakalpak and Sl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ú

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web search NEUTRAL — Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/

help

Claim 3: “Only three of the eight Great Lakes states have taken up the issue – Indiana, Michigan and New York. All have uniformly recognized the legal right to walk on Great Lakes beaches below the high-water mark.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided in the search results to support or refute the claim regarding the specific Great Lakes states (Indiana, Michigan, New York) and their recognition of beach walking rights.

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Claim 4: “About 80% of the U.S. Great Lakes coastal uplands are privately owned”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 5: “In July 2025, Florsheim, a retired professor of public health at the university where we work, got a ticket for trespassing on a beach.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While evidence confirms Paul Florsheim is a retired professor and was cited for trespassing, the specific date 'July 2025' is not explicitly corroborated across the provided evidence snippets (some results are dated 2026, suggesting the event happened in the past relative to those reports, but the specific July 2025 date is not verified by multiple independent sources).

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Anthony LaPaglia ( lə-PAH-lee-ə, Italian: [laˈpaʎʎa]; born 31 January 1959) is an Australian actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen he has received several accolades including three AACTA Awar…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_LaPaglia

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Bertrand Goldberg (July 17, 1913 – October 8, 1997) was an American architect and industrial designer, best known for the Marina City complex in Chicago, Illinois, the tallest reinforced concrete buil…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Goldberg

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Leadership Now Project (LNP) is a nonprofit membership group for business leaders who seek to "protect and renew American democracy." For 2023–2024, the group stated that its goals were to educate…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_Now_Project

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 6: “For example, a group of municipalities in Door County, Wisconsin, have invested more than $26 million to acquire over 2,700 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline and 128 acres of waterfront land for public use.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 7: “The judge found Florsheim guilty, but Florsheim has appealed.”

CORROBORATED

Three independent web search results confirm that Judge Margo Kirchner found Florsheim guilty of trespassing and that Florsheim plans to appeal the decision.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Christoph Schwab (born 14 October 1962 in Flörsheim am Main, Germany) is a German applied mathematician, specializing in numerical analysis of partial differential equations and boundary integral equa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Schwab

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Leroy "Roy" Binkley (1920/1921 – March 3, 1994) was an American architect. He created modern homes in the Chicago area and some in Connecticut, including The Allen House (Westport, Connecticut) which …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_Binkley

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ober-Flörsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ober-Flörsheim

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 8: “In June 2026, a Milwaukee TV station reported that one Wisconsin property owner had roped off a stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline historically accessed by the public and erected multiple “no trespassing” signs and a mounted trail camera to monitor activity.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 9: “In some places, such as Forest Park, Illinois, and Norwalk, Connecticut, local governments have rules requiring nonresidents to pay to park or use the beach.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 10: “In Michigan, where the state Supreme Court has said the public can walk on Great Lakes beaches, some Lake Michigan shoreline property owners are building miles of seawalls and rock barriers.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 11: “In 1989, the Maine Supreme Court ruled that shorefront property extends beyond the mean high tide line, all the way to the mean low tide line, and that the only public activities allowed between the tide lines are “fishing, fowling, and navigation” – not walking.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 12: “The division between those public trust areas and private land is usually set at what is called the “ordinary high-water mark,” or “mean high tide line.””

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources, including the California State Lands Commission and legal guides, confirm the 'ordinary high water mark' or 'mean high tide line' as the boundary between public and private lands.

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web search NEUTRAL — Generally, the landward boundary of sovereign lands is the ordinary high water mark for tidal waterways and the ordinary low water mark for navigable non ...
https://www.slc.ca.gov/land-types/

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web search NEUTRAL — Low Tide Line, The line where the water meets the land at the lowest point of the tide. ; Wetlands Boundary, The demarcation of areas that are considered ...
https://legal-resources.uslegalforms.com/h/high-tide-line

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web search NEUTRAL — Somewhere within this tidal range must be located the "mean" or "ordinary" high water mark. The placement of this line determines the property rights and ...
https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=…

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Claim 13: “California’s Constitution and Coastal Act strongly protect public access in this zone”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources confirm that the California Constitution and the California Coastal Act protect public access to the beach zone below the high-water mark.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — California Coastal Commission v. Granite Rock Co., 480 U.S. 572 (1987), is a United States Supreme Court case addressing the question of whether United States Forest Service regulations, federal land …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Coastal_Commission_…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The freedom to roam or right to roam, also called everyone's right, every person's right or everyman's right, is the general public's right to access certain public or privately owned land, lakes, and…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, 483 U.S. 825 (1987), is a United States Supreme Court decision that ruled a California Coastal Commission regulation which required private homeowners to dedic…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nollan_v._California_Coastal_C…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 14: “In 2021, local residents filed a lawsuit asking courts to change that ruling, to declare that the area between the low tide and high tide lines should be held in trust for the people’s use – including walking and running.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info

Claim 15: “Massachusetts and Maine, because they were carved out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, say even land to the low tide line can be privately owned.”

SINGLE SOURCE

This specific detail about Massachusetts and Maine is mentioned in one of the web search results ('Who is allowed to walk on the beach?'), but no other independent sources in the provided evidence corroborate it.

verified

Claim 16: “A legal principle known as the public trust doctrine establishes people’s rights to use certain lands and waters.”

VERIFIED

Multiple legal and educational sources (Cornell Law, etc.) confirm that the public trust doctrine establishes that certain natural resources are preserved for public use.

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web search NEUTRAL — The doctrine, which is found primarily in state common law, requires states to manage certain natural resources for the benefit of the public.
https://nationalaglawcenter.org/the-public-domain-basics-of-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Public trust doctrine is a legal principle establishing that certain natural and cultural resources are preserved for public use.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/public_trust_doctrine

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web search NEUTRAL — The Public Trust Doctrine, in general, declares that public trust lands, waters, and natural resources, such as beaches, navigable rivers, and wildlife, in a ...
https://nationalworkingwaterfronts.com/law-and-policy/public…

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Claim 17: “In 2023, they laid a line of seaweed marking what they said was the public-private boundary.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 18: “North Carolina, California, New Jersey and Florida have responded by enacting laws to protect public access to beaches when developers request erosion-control structures.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 19: “In Wisconsin, for instance, a legal case has stretched for months over whether Paul Florsheim may keep walking on a Lake Michigan beach he has walked for over 50 years.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results confirm Paul Florsheim is involved in a legal case in Shorewood, Wisconsin, regarding his right to walk on a Lake Michigan beach, noting he has done so for over 50 years.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Jews began immigrating to Chicago in the 1830s, primarily from Eastern Europe and Germany. Starting in the 1950s, the Jewish population within the city declined and by the end of the 20th century was …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Chicago

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of notable individuals who come from the state of Illinois, a state within the larger United States of America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Illinois

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The American ticket sales platform Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment were met with widespread public criticism and political scrutiny over blunders in selling tickets to th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift–Ticketmaster_cont…

+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.