Utah Fishing Laws change - July 18th 2008

On Friday July 18th 2008 the Utah State Supreme Court issued an opinion on a case that had been traveling the courts for some time. This was a case concerning trespassing laws and how landowners enforce them over the rights of the public to use a waterway.

It was long my opinion that Utah's laws were not up to date with how most Western states had instituted the way that sportsman or recreationalists use the waterways. With Montana leading the charge in recognition of how much the fisherman and outdoorsmen use the water, Utah has been a little slow to take up the challenge of who has the rights of the water.

For some background on this you can look up the "Equal Footing Doctrine" which is what lots of river rafting groups use to make their claims for access to run certain waters. This basically says that the states have a requirement to hold the waterways in the public trust. It also says that the states cannot give away this right by way of land deed or other method. In the 1970's the state of Utah sued the US Gov't using this doctrine and the newly passed Clean Waters Act to force the government to allow certain use of the Great Salt Lake. They won and in the decision the courts expanded the law to include any tributary of the navigable waters that fall under the "Equal Footing Doctrine".

In Utah up to this new court decision, many landowners would refuse access to the waterways even to rafters and kayak groups and would often, illegally, place fences across the rivers. The battle between outdoors & sportsmans groups and landowners has been going on ever since.

The court decision in essence reads that in Utah if you are in the river you are not trespassing. This is marvelous news for fisherman. This means we can enter the rivers on public access or areas and then stay in the water and fish the water that was previously "posted". While this isn't going to be the favorite ruling for landowners this is a new era for sportsmen and finally drags Utah's laws into the 21st century.

I look forward to fishing a bunch of water that I haven't fished for years.