NOREEN: Whatever floats your boat
Colorado is in a tough recession, so here’s a nice idea: Let’s kill the $142 million river rafting industry.
That is potentially what’s at stake in the latest chapter of a three-decade fight over access to Colorado streams. There have been many skirmishes over the years, but the latest involves a proposal by Texan (of course it’s a Texan) Lewis Shaw, whose 2,200-acre real estate development called Wilder on the Taylor is designed around the idea of trophy homes with riverfront fly fishing property.
Shaw ignited the latest battle by insisting the development will not allow any riff raff to float down “his” two-mile segment of the Taylor River northeast of Gunnison. If you want Shaw’s precise definition of what constitutes riff raff, look in the mirror.
Shaw and a number of others, including Colorado’s agriculture interests, have a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that says no one has a right to float on a river adjacent to private property. Taken to its logical extreme, this position could totally shut down river rafting, and not just the rafting companies — it would apply to any private person with a kayak, inner tube or canoe.
Gee, do you think Coloradans support that?
The Colorado River Outfitters Association and other tourist interests are backing House Bill 1188, which would preserve the status quo, allowing river runners to float and to make short portages when necessary. That means taking a raft or other vessel out of the river and carrying it a short distance around an obstacle, such as a low-hanging bridge.
“It’s been about 31 years now,” said Bob Hamel, the Woodland Park man who is chairman of the outfitters association. “Both sides seem to think the law is on their side.”
Perhaps borrowing a football term, Hamel said river runners “want the ability to have incidental contact” with stream banks owned by others, and to float by. No one who floats rivers wants to spend much time carrying their boat.
Terry Sullivan, director of the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau, noted that “500,000 people float the Colorado riverways every year.”
That’s a lot of business to lose and Sullivan added that “our demise will become opportunities for our competitors.”
Representing the Tourist Industry Association of Colorado, Sullivan wrote a letter supporting HB1188, saying “the pleasures and enjoyment of an estimated 500,000 people who float our Colorado riverways should not be put at risk by an illogical decision.”
Imagine: Rivers can be shared.
Opponents can revere property rights, but if the bill fails Hamel predicted there will be a ballot initiative and “we’ll win in a landslide.”
Or a tidal wave, as the case may be.
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