John Day River status, law reviewed

The governor and two other top Oregon officials meet in Salem today to decide whether the land underneath a 174-mile section of the John Day River is public property.

Years in the making, the State Land Board's decision follows numerous confrontations between river users and landowners along the Central Oregon river.

In recent months, a larger battle has eclipsed the dispute over the John Day and could affect public use and private property on nearly every river and stream in Oregon.

The debate focuses on a bill before the Legislature that scored some high-profile support last week. In a letter to the Land Board, Senate Republican and Democratic leaders, as well as the leadership in the Republican-controlled House, pledged to pass Senate Bill 1028 by the end of the current session.

The bill's continued support among lawmakers is notable considering its lack of public backing: At committee hearings, next to no one has spoken in its favor, and both river users and riverside property owners have opposed it -- though for different reasons.

"This is the bill everybody seems to love to hate," said Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, who along with Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland, is sponsoring the bill.

"We anticipated that people who had vested interest in the status quo would not particularly appreciate this," Ferrioli said.

The heart of the bill is a portion that says the public can use "any segment of a free-flowing, floatable, natural waterway" for recreation such as fishing or boating, a definition that would apply to most rivers in the state.

It then specifies that recreational use can be "conditioned, limited, restricted or excluded" by a statewide management plan. The bill also sets up a committee of landowners, river users, tribes, and law enforcement and government officials to advise the state on river management.

New fees and licenses

Those provisions, along with new fees and licenses for nonmotorized boats such as canoes, have galvanized opposition among river users. They see the bill as limiting rights they already have, and they point to an opinion from Attorney General Hardy Myers in April that says the public has a right to use any river large enough to float a boat, regardless of who owns the beds and banks.

"This bill, instead of following the law and providing for public access, it seeks to cut them off in some places," said Eric Leaper, executive director of the National Organization for Rivers. The group is following the debate here and a similar one in Colorado.

At the same time, landowners fear the bill would expand public use of rivers, thereby bringing more boaters -- and their trash -- to their homes and farms.

"Our concern is that the bill is giving access to the beds and banks of private property on pretty much the majority of the streams and rivers in the state," said Katie Fast, a lobbyist for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

The only statutory means in Oregon to guarantee river access is through a "navigability" ruling by the State Land Board. That's what the board -- the governor, secretary of state and treasurer -- will weigh today for the John Day.

Such a ruling would mean the state owns the beds and banks of the river, ensuring public access to the waterway. But the navigability process is cumbersome, and landowners consider a navigability finding akin to a land grab.

Governor's support unknown

Gov. Ted Kulongoski and the other board members could decide to postpone their decision on the John Day while the bill moves through the Legislature.

The governor "has supported the Legislature working towards some kind of legislation that would end the Land Board's making decisions on a river-by-river basis," said Anna Richter Taylor, the governor's spokeswoman.

Taylor didn't say whether the governor would support the bill. It cleared the Senate Rules Committee last month and was sent to the Senate Budget Committee's subcommittee on natural resources last week.

The state board has declared portions of two other rivers navigable. Sections of 10 other rivers have been deemed navigable through court cases, Oregon statehood law or legislative action from the 1870s.

Matthew Preusch: 541-382-2006; preusch@bendbroadband.com