Utah Supreme Court upholds law making it more difficult to access waterways, much to the dismay of outdoor enthusiasts

KPCW | By The Salt Lake Tribune,

Published May 25, 2023 at 2:06 PM MDT

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Brady Willison on Tuesday fishes a stretch of the Upper Provo that cuts through the 7,000-acre Victory Ranch, a luxury destination near Francis. Until a Nov. 4 court ruling invalidating Utah’s restrictive stream access law, such streams were not available to anglers without property owners’ permission. Stream access advocates successfully sued Victory Ranch, claiming that the landowners’ practice of keeping non-guests off the river violates an easement the public has to stream beds. But without further guidance from the court, the scope of that easement is not clear, lawyers say. Victory Ranch insists the ruling should be stayed pending its appeal, which it expects to win.

Francisco Kjolseth

The high court ruled the Public Waters Access Act — which restricts the public’s ability to access privately-owned steams — will remain as law.

The Utah Supreme Court has ruled to uphold a law that limits access to some of Utah’s rivers and streams — a ruling that impacts anglers and those who enjoy floating many of Utah’s waterways.

On Thursday, the state’s high court released an opinion upholding the Public Waters Access Act, a law passed in 2010 that tightened rules to access waterways around the state. The ruling affirmed a 4th District judge’s 2021 ruling on the same case, which reversed a previous decision.

The 2010 legislation said the Utah Constitution’s private property protections, “protect against government’s broad recognition or grant of a public recreation easement to access or use public water on private property.”

Further, the Public Waters Access Act says, “public ownership of water and recognizing existing rights of use are insufficient to overcome the specific constitutional protections for private property.”

In other words, the bill differentiated between public ownership of water and owning the private land that makes up a waterway’s creek bed — meaning fishermen and anglers wouldn’t be able to wade through rivers if the area was private land unless they get written permission from the land owner.

Find the complete report from the Salt Lake Tribune here.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.