Utah’s shaky stance on fishing access got slapped with some common sense yesterday afternoon, when Judge Derek Pullan of Utah’s 4th District Court ruled in favor of the public’s right to lawfully access and recreate on ALL of Utah’s public rivers and streams.

And after a tumultuous five-year court battle, anglers in the state can celebrate by shotgunning 3.2s and going fishing.

“This is a case where policy triumphed over profits; where law prevailed over lobbying,” said Utah Stream Access Coalition (USAC) President, Kris Olson. “The rivers and streams of our state are gifts of providence, and the lifeblood of this arid land. Since before statehood, these rivers have been used by all, and we’re grateful that the Court prevented that use from becoming exclusive to a privileged few.”

In 2010, USAC slapped the Public Waters Access Act with a lawsuit. The act, despite its misleading name, effectively disposed of the public’s right to use more than 2,700 miles of Utah’s rivers and streams where they ostensibly cross over private property, many miles of which have benefited from publicly-funded habitat and stream bank restoration, flood abatement, and other projects. The lawsuit named as defendants the State of Utah and Victory Ranch, a Wasatch County development selling luxury home sites offering exclusive access to more than four miles of the Provo River.

In the 61-page decision, Judge Pullan noted that the Act served no trust or greater public purpose and impaired the public’s interest in the resource that remains, that is, the waters and streams of Utah. The Court observed that “Every parcel of public land, every reach of public water is unique. If Wasatch, Kodachrome Basin, and Snow Canyon State Parks were disposed of… the public’s right to recreate in other places would be of little consolation.”

The ruling blocks Victory Ranch from any action that “prohibits, prevents, impedes, limits or impairs the public’s right to access the Upper Provo River where it flows through VRA’s property,” and prohibits the State of Utah from enforcing the restrictions provided in the act.

Like all close fights, this one will likely see a rematch. USAC says this is only one more step toward resolution: “While we have won both (the Weber and Provo) cases at the district court level, we still anticipate two appeals to the Utah Supreme Court.”

Support USAC by becoming a member today.

Tom Bie
+ posts

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily Drake
Tags: 

Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment