Protect our Fishing Please

I hope you can pass this on to anyone that fishes. It is important to send an email to both your State Representative and your State Senator. Thanks

Last summer the Utah Supreme Court ruled that all streams in Utah are legal to access as long as a person stays in the river bed. This is easily the greatest improvement to hunting/fishing that has ever happened in Utah. Not surprisingly, big agriculture and developers are not happy with the ruling and are working in the legislature right now to remove the law. Here is what I know so far: A powerful Rep from Coalville (Mel Brown) is working to completely remove the law. A powerful Rep from Box Elder County (Ben Ferry) is working toward a compromise bill that allows big landowners an exemption from the law, but lets us fish in rivers that are listed an navigable. There are very few rivers that are listed as navigable, so this is not good either. These bills are held in the protected bill file in the legislature, which means that no one can have access to what they say or what they intend to accomplish. This allows the sponsors to gather support in backdoor meetings and trade-offs, then they can spring it for vote at the last minute and get it passed before most reps know what it's ramifications are. Very tricky. Our best hope is to mount a pre-emptive strike by contacting our representatives now and have them ready to defeat any attempt to water down or repeal the stream access law when it is sprung upon them. Please send this to everyone you have ever known that has ever held a fishing pole in Utah. It is a classic landowner/developer vs. common man fight and we are not in the power position. Please ask your representative to protect you from the special interests of the rich and maintain our right to access public waters to pursue public wildlife. If you don't know your representative's email or phone number, contact me and I'll get it for you. This is important. Here is a link to find your state representative and state senator -http://www.utah.gov/government/
If you have a hard time finding it or not sure what the email should read, contact me and i can help you out.