I'm not aware of a truly easy way to confirm to confirm land/lake ownership, associated easements, and permitted recreational use without looking up a particular location. Here's a link to the ACOE locations launch page: http://www.usace.army.mil/Locations.aspx.locke_n_load wrote:Is there an easy way to tell if park land is owned by COE without using google?
As you can see from the map, Texas is divvied up among the South Pacific Division and the Southwestern Division, covered by management offices in Albuquerque, Tulsa, DFW, and Galveston. Here's a link to information about the 24 ACOE-owned lakes managed out of the Ft. Worth District, but that doesn't show the district's Real Estate Division, Reservoir Operations, or Coasts and Ports.
The Bear Creek area discussed here (actually referred to as the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs) is managed out of the Galveston District Office, and here is a PDF file of the area's master plan as published in 2009. A summary of ACOE permitted recreational uses of Addicks/Barker is available at this link, but to get a detailed brochure you have to pick it up at the Addicks Project Office, or telephone and ask them to send it to you.
But Addicks/Barker is a good example that you have drill down into all the available info for a particular location. The Addicks and Barker Reservoir areas are governed by federal law (Title 36, Chapter III, Part 327), which includes: "327.13 Possession of loaded firearms, ammunition, projectile firing devices, bows and arrows, and explosives of any kind is prohibited." However, we all know that ACOE agrees to lease land in George Bush Park to American Shooting Centers...located on Shooting Center Drive, no less. Clear evidence that the ACOE makes case-by-case decisions about permitted use on their lands, lakes, or waterways.