As a young girl, Carol Auer spent many weekends on the shore of Dobbins Island, swimming and playing in the sand. As an adult, she continued the tradition, kayaking there and hosting picnics.

But since owners David and Diana Clickner erected a fence on the north side of the Magothy River island, she hasn't been able to do any of those things.

"I don't go there anymore. It upsets me," the Arnold woman testified before county Circuit Court Judge Ronald Silkworth.

She and other members of the Magothy River Association were in court this week arguing that the controversial island's beach always has been...