>dkpeay, can you tell us if
>SFW supported HB 187 in
>any form? Thank you.
>
Never mind...I think I found my answer. For those that don't know, HB 187 would eliminate public fishing access to some areas where legal access was affirmed by the Utah Supreme Court last year. This bill REDUCES access for anglers in Utah.
E-mail from Don Peay:
Over the past several years, the Utah Legislature has been VERY good to Fisherman in Utah. Tens of millions of dollars have been invested to rebuild fish hatcheries, legislation has been passed to allow for acquisition of water rights to allow for instream flow in low times to protect fisheries etc. by all accounts, fishing in cold water and warm water fisheries in Utah is exceptional, in many cases, it has never been better.
I might remind the ?we are radical fly fisherman only? fisherman, that their 300 member groups pale in comparison to the SFW membership statewide, and 95% of SFW members fish. And, when the fishing groups needed to raise $10,000 to put larger rainbows in Strawberry, SFW came up with $7,500 of the 10 grand.
There have been several amendments proposed by the Sponsor of HB 187. They include eliminating a past rule that would have required NO fishing within 150 feet of a dwelling on a river, you just had to float by. With the current proposal, go ahead and fish on.
The bill is being amended to allow a committee to look at other rivers not found on the access list, and propose adding them in the future.
These are good amendments from my perspective.
HB 187 will specifically allow for public access ? even through private property if fisherman are in the rivers ? on these major rivers: Logan, Bear, Blacksmith Fork, Little Bear, Ogden, Weber, Bear, Jordan, Provo, Duschesne, White, Strawberry, Price, Diamond Fork, Lower Sevier, and Sevier River. I believe 5 other smaller streams will be added to the access list.
This will mean, in some total, approximately 95-97% of the FISH in Utah will be accessible to the public.
This will mean that private property rights, where relatively small streams will be closed to the public, as they had been for 100 years. However, once again, by law, all of the major rivers and streams above and all the lakes will be open to the public. And of course, the Green River and Colorado, etc. which can be floated, are open as well.
Based on the feedback from emails, and in discussions with many people, most SFW members support this legislation and so after consulting with the SFW Executive Board, that will be the official SFW position. Mind you, this legislation has changed hourly, that is part of the process, and this bill is pretty good. IN my judgment, now supporting this legislation will do lots of good for many reasons, on many other issues and funding for the DWR and conservation as well. To fight it just to delay, or simple because some people want 100% of what they want, or Nothing is not smart business for now, or in the future.
