This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The fight over public access to Utah streams that flow over private property is far from over. A group of fly fishermen and river runners has filed suit to overturn the law the Legislature passed this year that tipped the balance in favor of private property owners.
In the meantime, the Legislature's Waterways Task Force is preparing to launch an enhanced program that would use federal and state funds to pay for walk-in access for the public to private lands that abut and underlie public waters.
It is impossible to predict how the court challenge to the new law, the Public Waters Access Act, will turn out or how long it might take. Meanwhile, paying willing property owners for public acceess would be an excellent way to proceed.
The Division of Wildlife Resources has obtained $2 million in federal grants over the next two years to buy public walk-in access across private property, and the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee has given initial approval for the division to use $300,000 in restricted fees from state fishing licenses for the same purpose. Paying private property owners for public access to wade on private stream beds or walk across private lands to reach public streams is the fairest way to solve this knotty problem.
Some fishers disagree. They believe that a 2008 Utah Supreme Court decision gave them an easement to play in the water and wade on stream beds, even if they are privately owned. But the Legislature changed that with the new law this year, and until the courts rule on the lawsuit that challenges that law, private property owners have a right to restrict wading access to their property, which is as it should be.
Finally, there is a third developing story in this debate. The Public Waters Access Act provides that public recreational access to a private property is established if the public has used it continuously and openly for 10 consecutive years after Sept. 22, 1982. The law also provides that a person or the DWR can file a quiet title action to have a court declare a right to public recreational access in such circumstances.
A committee currently is reviewing which streams in Utah that flow over private property are the best candidates for this designation.
Under the same law, the public is free to float over private stream beds and fish while floating, so long as people don't stop and they only touch the bed to promote safe passage, to keep moving or to portage around an obstacle.
If all this sounds a bit confusing, it is. But as officials work to obtain public access to private sections of streams, things should get clearer.