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Show Jude George P. Parker si V'v : i S j ' I ' XV JJ The question raised by J. Arthur Ar-thur Meeham, state fish and game commissioner, concerning the ownership of the fishing righls in Strawberry reservoir is of prime importance not only in Utah but in the rest of the west, Judge Geo. P. Parker, attorney general declared de-clared recently, while discussing the problem with The Strawber- " - ry Valley Waterusers association and Commissioner Meeham. Judge Parker declared that his opinion might have a bearing upon up-on all future reclamation projects and that it might even have to undergo un-dergo the fire of debate on the floors of Congress and for that reason he was going to be sure that his opinion, whatever it might be, would stand the acid test. The so called Strawberry question ques-tion is unique, Judge Parker declares. de-clares. Hitherto in reclamation projects the ri?ht of the state to 'control fishing has never been questioned. The projects have been built wholly or in part on nnhlirt fa ml ' 14 V JStljAlU ."But in Strawberry, we have a different condition," Judge Park-'er Park-'er says, "Here we have a reservoir reser-voir built upon what is now or 'will be private land. When cou- .. gress authorized the Strawberry galley project in 1910 the relca- mation service purchased 56,000 V acres of land from the Indians at $1.23 an acre. This cost was to become the property of the wa- terusers when title to the project 'passed to them. "The waterusers now claim, as I understand it from the letter written to me by Mr. Meeham, full ownership of the fishing privilege pri-vilege on the reservoir and while f they are willing to enter into an agreement with the state on the fishing rights the state must understand un-derstand and admit that these rights are on the sufferance of the waterusers association and " ' r " ' not allowed because (he state has any tlaim on the fishing. "There are many complicated legal points involved which I do not cure to discuss before issuing the formal opinion. The fact that the Strawberry people filed on the water fo rirrigation purposes and not'for the jpropagation of fish may have some bearing. That is one of the points my men are running down. "The disquieting feature of thia.question is that if the Strawberry Straw-berry people are right then Echo, llyrum, Deer Creek, Gooseberry nd other proposed or actual projects pro-jects are apt to become private fish ponds unless the state or the federal government take some action ac-tion to preserve thee rights to the public. "It might be deemed wise to avoid such controversies, that the reclamation law be amended to specify that fishing rights remain re-main with the state. It might be wise to urge such a clause in all succeeding contracts between the reclamation bureau and the waterusers. Just what will be best or how far this question will go we can not tell until we get , all our date arranged. "But at ny rate we believe that this opinion will be widely road and will be considered not only by this state but by other states. Mr. Meeham has raised a big question and we want to be sure we do not leave any point uncovered." t |