What's a navigable river? Colorado's never said
Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Fishermen pick a fight with Colorado billionaires
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Tuesday, September 6, 2022
The Arkansas River near Salida, Colorado. Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management ([link removed])
A fight over river access is playing out in Colorado, where an 81-year-old fly fisherman is suing the state to try to win anglers access to navigable rivers.
The New York Times profiles Roger Hill ([link removed]) , a retired nuclear weapons scientist who likes to fish on the Arkansas River. In the town of Cotopaxi, a landowner ordered Hill to leave the river, which Hill asserts he has every right to fish in.
According to federal law, states own the title to all navigable rivers—defined as waterways used as “highways for commerce” at the time of statehood. Despite historical evidence that the Arkansas River was used commercially, the State of Colorado has never defined navigability.
University of Colorado Law professor Mark Squillace, who is representing Hill in his lawsuit, says that makes Colorado “a total outlier” ([link removed]) in the West. “Standing in the bed of the river is something the U.S. Supreme Court has explicitly guaranteed, and the idea that Colorado would try to deny those rights, which are enjoyed by the citizens of every other state, is pretty shocking.”
On the other side of the lawsuit, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, backed by agriculture and real estate groups, argues that Hill lacks standing to bring the case. The State Supreme Court could hold a trial this fall.
** New Mexico sided with fishermen
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A similar legal fight played out in New Mexico this year, where the State Supreme Court last week detailed its reasoning ([link removed]) for a decision that restored stream access across the state. The state Game Commission had issued regulations allowing property owners to close access to waters on their land, and the Court invalidated that rule from the bench in March.
In New Mexico, all water within the state belongs to the public, but the land underneath may be owned privately. The Court found that the right to use that publicly owned water also gives anglers the right to touch privately owned land beneath.
“Walking and wading on the privately owned beds beneath public water is reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of many forms of fishing and recreation,” the Court wrote last week. “Having said that, we stress that the public may neither trespass on privately owned land to access public water, nor trespass on privately owned land from public water.”
Quick hits
** Utah lawsuit explicitly aims to take down the Antiquities Act, national monuments
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
** Editorial: Make Camp Hale a national monument
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Grand Junction Daily Sentinel ([link removed])
** Stream access fight heads to Colorado Supreme Court as New Mexico justices explain win for anglers
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New York Times ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])
** How Biden can use executive action to reach his climate goals
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Washington Post ([link removed])
** Report: Quitting fossil fuels and reviving America
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Center for American Progress ([link removed])
** Environmental engineers help store water and rejuvenate land ravaged by climate change. They're also beavers.
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New York Times ([link removed]) | CBS News ([link removed])
** Flaming Gorge Reservoir only able to deliver two more emergency water releases
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Water Education Colorado ([link removed])
** Opinion: Where does Wyoming Governor Gordon actually stand on public lands?
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Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” It may seem trite to say that beavers are a key part of a national climate action plan, but the reality is that they are a force of 15-40 million highly skilled environmental engineers. We cannot afford to work against them any longer. We need to work with them.”
—Scientists Chris Jordan and Emily Fairfax, via The New York Times ([link removed])
Picture this
Wildland firefighters catch a ride on the Wild & Scenic Rogue River to reach the Rum Creek Fire in Southern Oregon. The Bureau of Land Management paid river guides to get the firefighters to the fire lines.
“The guides were super thankful of the firefighters and what they were doing, and the firefighters were super grateful that the guides were there to move them downstream,” Zack Collier of Northwest Rafting Company told OPB News ([link removed]) .
Photo by Northwest Rafting Company.
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