Utah Stream Access Fight Goes ON, and USAC Needs Our (Financial) Help

From USAC:

You’ve heard it before, bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded.  Everything is on the line.  Nine years of organizing, fundraising, patience, and persistence has come to a point where we are all in, and we’re not looking back.  For nine years, USAC has been fighting for what is rightfully ours, and the light at the end of the tunnel is finally coming into focus.  It could be considered our “last stand,” but in truth, it is our closest opportunity for a new beginning in Utah, and we are ready to give it all we’ve got.

The support this cause has garnered over the past nine years is astounding.  Membership is now over 7,000+ members, one mile of access on the Weber river has expanded to forty, and most importantly, we have become a formidable force in restoring access to our waters.  None of this could have been accomplished without our members.  Your donations of time, money, and effort have brought us to this point, and we are excited to finally be gaining some traction.

In our last email, we outlined the Utah Supreme Court’s decision on the Provo case.  Although this decision was not what we wanted, it outlined a threshold issue that needs to be answered before the court can decide the core arguments of our case:  whether the public right at issue (a common law easement to use privately-owned streambeds) was in place before the Utah Constitution was adopted in 1895 and thus rooted that right in the Constitution?

To answer this question, USAC will be spending an extraordinary amount of time and money on expert witnesses and historical research analysts, and we want to get ahead of these costs as soon as possible. How important is access to you?

Even though USAC’s attorneys have been working free-of-charge, there are still significant legal costs associated with this process – the research and expert witness costs mentioned above, fees for court recorders, transcriptions, depositions, expert retainers, and court filings. USAC has been able to meet these legal costs by carefully managing its “war chest,” which was built from the generous and thoughtful donations of its members, and friends.

If you want your constitutional rights to use Utah’s rivers and streams restored, now is the time to give.

For Credit Card/Paypal donations, please click here.

Or, you may mail a check to:

Treasurer

Utah Stream Access Coalition

P.O. Box 91154

Salt Lake City, UT 84109

We thank you for your continued support.  Together we will win this fight for public rights.