Public opportunities to legally fish, hunt or float Utah waterways could be decided this week SALT LAKE CITY – Years of legal uncertainty surrounding public access of Utah streams and waterways soon could be resolved, as the Utah Supreme Court prepares to issue a ruling on a controversial state law prohibiting public access on waters that cross private property. On Monday, the court heard oral arguments on Utah’s stream access law. At issue is the public’s ability to access waters that ...

A HUNTER HEADS OUT EARLY ONE MORNING to visit a favorite duck blind on public property, only to find a new gate across a public road. Two elk hunters drive toward public land in the Missouri River Breaks and run into a locked gate across a road they’d traveled freely for years. Fly fishermen arrive at a bridge over a famous trout stream and find the route to the water barred by No Trespassing signs and electric fences. Welcome to the New West.All of these events took place in Montana. The ...