River Dance: Legislator shops a bill to undo Utah Supreme Court on public access to rivers

“Gerald Nielson, an avid angler and attorney, waited years for a case that could open all Utah’s rivers to fly fishing, rafting and bird watching. In Utah, the public has always owned the river waters and had the theoretical right to use them, even on private property. But unlike the fly fishing mecca of Montana, those who tried to cast their lines on Utah rivers risked getting shot.

Nielson finally got the case he wanted in 2000, when a Roy man was arrested for allegedly trespassing on private property while fishing on the Weber River. The case alleged Kevin Conaster trespassed by standing on the river bottom, which in Utah—unlike in Montana or Idaho—is private property. Last summer, the state Supreme Court ruled in the Conaster case that the public’s right to use the water for recreation includes use of the river bottom. The ruling effectively opened up miles of previously off-limits river water throughout Utah.

“The public [has] the right to float, hunt, fish and participate in all lawful activities that utilize the water,” the court wrote.

Just six months later, Utah lawmakers are busy writing a river-access law in what Nielson calls an, “insidious attempt to take back the Supreme Court decision.”

Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne, a farmer and member of the Republican House leadership team, has been shopping a bill that purports to limit the Supreme Court decision, in part by listing rivers to which the decision would apply. Initially, some river user groups with which a draft bill was shared thought the bill wasn’t bad, but subsequent versions keep narrowing down the rivers on the good list, Nielsen says. A river-users coalition of fishers, rafters and birders had scheduled a Feb. 3 meeting with Ferry and were hoped to have input into a final bill.” –> LINK