The 2020 USAC General Membership meeting will be held virtually on Thursday, November 12th, at 7:00pm via Zoom videoconference and teleconference. We encourage all members in good standing to attend.

On February 20, 2019, the Utah Supreme Court remanded USAC’s constitutional challenge of the Public Waters Access Act (HB141) back to the fourth district court to answer a “threshold question” before the case would be decided on the merits.  The threshold question outlined by the Court is whether “there is a basis in historical fact–in the understanding of public easements in the late 19th century–for the easement recognized in

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The 2017 USAC General Membership meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 28th, at 7:00pm at the Murray Library, 166 E 5300 S. We encourage all members in good standing to attend.

We just wanted to remind you that the final hearing in the Public Waters case before the Utah Supreme Court will be next Wednesday, 6/14 at 0930. Details below. We hope to see you there.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – The Utah Supreme Court (the Court) will hear an additional round of oral arguments in one of the two appeals of district court decisions in which the trial courts ruled in favor of the Utah Stream Access Coalition (USAC), and its efforts to restore the public’s right to lawfully use all of waters of the State, regardless of who owns the beds over which they flow. Both appeals were previously argued before the Court in January.

In March, we received notice from the Utah Supreme Court that Judge Thomas, the appointed replacement for Justice Pearce, who had previously recused himself from the Weber and Provo cases, has also recused himself from both cases. Judge Christiansen of the Utah Court of Appeals has replaced Judge Thomas in both cases.

We just received word that the Utah Supreme Court has granted Victory Ranch and the State of Utah's motions to stay Judge Pullan's November Ruling. In short, this means 2,700 miles of rivers and streams are once again closed to public use, effective immediately. 

This morning, we announced that access to Utah's river and streams has been restored. While we wait for the State to comply with this ruling and update its enforcement policies, we want to remind our membership that our actions from here forward must be above reproach.

It's official - the Weber/Navigability case has been appealed by the landowner defendants to the Utah Supreme Court. We still don't have specific dates yet, but our rough timeline is as follows: br iefs completed  by September-October 2015; oral arguments by April-May 2016; and decision by October-November 2016. It is our hope that the high court of the State will uphold Judge Kelly's decision, and open the door for similar rulings on other rivers in Utah.

We've received numerous questions over the past few weeks as to what the recent Weber River Navigability ruling means for our members and the public. The USAC Board of Directors and legal counsel have prepared a fact sheet to help our members understand what the ruling means, and a short one-page version to easily distribute. We encourage fly shops to post the 1-page version and keep a copy of the full fact sheet on hand to help inform your customers and the public. You can download the Fact Sheets in the links on the sidebar.

Today is an historic day for Utahans and, in particular, the members of USAC. This afternoon, Judge Keith Kelly of Utah's 3rd District Court ruled in favor of the Utah Stream Access Coalition and confirmed that the Weber River is navigable where it crosses over the landowner defendant's properties.

WHAT THE BILL DOES

It restores historical public uses of streams that are capable of floating cut timber or that can be navigated by recreational boats during ordinary high water.

It allows wading, walking and fishing in the stream corridor below the ordinary high water mark.

It continues to prohibit the public from crossing private land to reach a stream that is open to public use.