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71-year-old Coloradan Roger Hill is at the heart of a lawsuit that could revolutionize river access in his state—where river beds belong to the owners of any land they run through, rather than the public. This has implications for folks like Hill, who like to fish. He brought the case against two landowners who harassed him while he stood fishing in a portion of the Arkansas River that runs through private property.
“We don’t have enough quality recreational opportunities to satisfy demand today,” Hill told High Country News. “There are waters I’ve wanted to fish for 50 years, and I’ve been denied the use of a state-owned resource.”
Colorado's law regarding stream and river bed access is one of the most restrictive in the West, where most river beds are considered public property thanks to a federal law that says the beds of “navigable” rivers belong to states. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in 1912 that the state's waterways were not navigable, due to their often steep, canyon-bound nature. But Hill's lawsuit claims otherwise—at least for the Arkansas River, which he believes was once navigable based on dozens of references to industries employing the river to move goods in old newspapers.
If he wins, the case could affect other rivers in Colorado that can be proven to have been navigable in 1876, when Colorado became a state. Frequent Center for Western Priorities podcast guest Mark Squillace is representing Hill, pro-bono, in the case.
Oil and gas lease sales begin today
The Interior Department is holding a lease sale in Wyoming today, marking the first time the Biden administration has offered up public land to oil and gas companies. Sales in Montana, Utah, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Colorado will follow.
The sale in Wyoming is by far the largest, with just under 120,000 acres offered for lease, while the next largest comes in at just a few thousand acres. In total, the sales include roughly 140,000 acres, about 80 percent less than the oil and gas industry proposed for lease.
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