Legal Definitions - boomage

Boomage is a legal term with several distinct meanings, primarily related to the management and use of waterways for transporting timber or vessels.

• First, it can refer to a fee charged by a company for the service of collecting, sorting, and distributing logs that have accumulated within a designated area on a river or lake. This area, often called a "boom," is essentially a floating barrier used to contain and organize logs.
• Second, boomage can describe a legal right or permission to enter onto privately owned land adjacent to a waterway (known as riparian land) specifically for the purpose of securing or fastening these log booms.
• Third, in a different context, boomage can also mean a fee charged by the owner or operator of a canal for allowing a vessel to anchor or moor within the canal system.

Here are some examples to illustrate these meanings:

• Example 1 (Log Management Fee): A timber harvesting company fells trees in a remote forest and floats the cut logs down a river to a processing plant. Along the river, a specialized logistics company operates a large, contained area where logs are gathered, sorted by species and size, and then released in controlled batches to various sawmills. The payment the timber harvesting company makes to the logistics company for this service of managing and distributing their logs within the river boom is an example of boomage.

• Example 2 (Access Right): A lumber mill needs to temporarily store a large volume of logs in a river boom before they can be processed. The most practical location to secure this boom requires attaching ropes and anchors to trees on a section of riverbank that is part of a private ranch. The legal permission or easement the lumber mill obtains from the ranch owner to access their land and fasten the boom is a form of boomage, specifically referring to the right to use riparian land for boom purposes.

• Example 3 (Anchorage Fee): A commercial shipping vessel is transporting cargo through a privately owned canal network. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the vessel needs to temporarily stop and anchor overnight in a designated mooring area within the canal system. The charge levied by the canal's operating company for the vessel's temporary anchorage or mooring in their private waterway is an instance of boomage.