A river access advocacy group is splintered. Landowners are organized to protect a decades-old “float but don’t touch” decree.
And lawmakers, halfway through the legislative session, have yet to take up any bill that would change that state’s murky rules around recreational access to the state’s waterways.
As a short and dry river season takes shape after a snow-starved winter, it appears the status quo will hold. But passions are roiling at Colorado’s uniquely volatile confluence of property rights, recreational pressures and river safety.
“I think there is a way to respect private property rights and protect the right to float,” natural resource attorney Amy Beatie told a Crested Butte crowd March 19 gathered to watch the new “Common Waters” documentary.
There are three organizations angling for space in this decades-long scrap over access. The brand new Responsible River Recreation Alliance is gathering paddlers to support legislation that would clarify public access on Colorado’s river and streams with a call for a law that would allow boaters to safely pass through private property without leaving their crafts, unless they need to portage around a dangerous obstacle like a lowhead dam or a fence.
The Colorado Water Conservation Alliance is uniting waterfront landowners with warnings that shifts in the “no touch” rules for paddlers passing private land in Colorado could impact property rights and lead to lengthy lawsuits. That alliance is urging landowners to fight any change to the status quo.
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