(CO) American Whitewater Wins First Round of Legal Battles

Jay Kenney, American Whitewater's President, reports that we have won the first round of our legal battles in Colorado! As Jay says, "This is great news!"

By order dated September 10, 2001, the Gunnison County District Court granted Colorado White Water Association and American Whitewater's motion to intervene in the "trespass" lawsuit filed there. The lawsuit, which Gateview Ranch and Timber Bridge Ranch filed against Cannibal Outdoor Network and Jack and Leslie Nichols, claims that boaters and floaters on the river are committing civil trespass when they pass through the ranch property, and seeks to permanently enjoin (stop) the defendants from continuing to pass through the private property.

CWWA and AW hired Porzak Browning Bushong (who represented Golden in the whitewater park water rights case this past year) to represent the associations jointly and to protect the public's right of passage through private property. In answering the complaint, AW and CWWA have raised a series of defenses that are designed to protect and clarify the boating public's right of passage. Although there are a host of defenses, in simple terms they boil down to a couple assertions: the public has a right to pass through private property because: 1) they can (navigable in fact under federal law); 2) the property is not private, it is public (adverse possession; public trust doctrine, navigable for federal title purposes). How these defenses play out over the course of the litigation remains to be seen, but the impact of the motion to intervene is huge: AW and CWWA are now defendants in the case and free to defend the public interest as far and as widely as possible, a significant step up over amicus status (where you only are allowed to file a brief).

Resolution of the case is likely to take 2-5 years and it will not be cheap, so pitch in. Send some money to AW, P. O. Box 636, Margaretville, NY 12455 (and specify you want to support the Colorado Access Fight) Colorado Access Fund. In time, we'll post the various pleadings and major filings in the case on line so you can follow the action from your ez-boy. Thanks to all of you who have given so much time and money already. We cannot do this without your help and support.

More information about the lawsuit and about contributing to the Colorado Access Legal Fund