Show FISHING RIGHTS IMPORTANT the question raised by J arthur mecham Me chani state fish and gumo commissioner wiss ioner concerning the ownership of tile tho fishing rights in strawberry reservoir Is of prime importance not only in utah but in the rest of tile tho west judge georgo george P parker attorney torney general declared recently whilo discussing tho the problem with the I 1 strawberry valley water users as and commissioner bocham Mo chaill judge parker declared that ilia his opinion might havo have a bearing upon all future reclamation projects and that it might even have hava to undergo tho the tiro fire of debate on tile tho floors floora of congress and for that reason ho he was going to be sure that I 1 his I 1 Is opinion what whatever evec it might be would stand the ac add id test the so c called al led strawberry question Is unique judge parker declares hitherto I 1 in reclamation projects the right of the state to control fishing has never been questioned the projects have been built wholly or in part on public land but in strawberry we wb have it d lf ferent condition judge parker says here wo we have a reservoir built upon what Is now or will be private land when congress authorized the straw berry valley project in 1910 the reclamation service purchased 56 0 0 acres of land from tho the indians at an acre this cost was charged ip ilist tile the project and tho the land was property pr ot of tile tho water to am me 4 project pro passed users when wh title tonn to t 61 to them atso in abe athe water users claim as I 1 un d lt amm the letter en ame by mr mecham Ale cham full ownership hip odthe of the fishing privileges on tho the tee res amir and while they are willing to I 1 entell into an agreement with the state on the fishing rights the ole state must under understand stanA and admit that these rights ara aro on ba the sufferance of 0 the water users association and not allowed because the state has any claim on the fishing therel are many complicated leyal legal points involved which I 1 do not care carb to discuss before issuing the formal opinion the fact that the strawberry people filed on the water for irrigation 1 purposes and not cot for the propagation i ot of tish fish may have some same bearing that I 1 Is one of the points my men m e n are running 1 down the disquieting feature of this question Is that if 1 the strawberry people are right then echo deer creek hyrum gooseberry Goose beery and other proposed or actual projects are apt a pt to become private fish ponds unless the state of the federal government take some action to preserve these rights to the public it might be deemed wise to avoid such controversies that the reclamation ree la law be amended to specify that fishing rights remain with the state it might be wise to urge such a clause in all succeeding contracts between the reclamation bureau and the water users just what will be best or how tar far this question will go we cannot tell until wo we get all our data arranged but at any rate we believe that this opinion willbe will be widely read and will bo be co not only by this state but by other states Mr Mecham has raised a big question and we want to be sure we do not leave any point uncovered 11 |