Utah Windriders Association

Attached are some pictures taken yesterday of Rush Lake. They were taken by a co-worker of mine that lives in the development west of the lake. Otherwise I would have driven down to the water to see the depth. My guess is a ~6". In my opinion there is enough water here to kite. What do you think Kenny? However, beware of the fence that runs east-west across the lake. Not only as a safety concern but when I contacted the Tooele County sheriff, he warned about the new land owner being extremely aggressive in prosecuting 'trespassers'. It is still a bit unclear whether he owns the piece to access the launch just be careful and be aware of any signs and such. As for actually kiting on the water, I contacted every organization that I could think of (DNR, Water Rights, Tooele Sheriff, BLM, District Attorney etc.) and none could tell me whether or not it was legal or illegal to kite on the water that was on his 'property'. All of the organizations played the politics card and didn't want to take a stance. It would be interesting to go out there and kite and see if anything happens. Just thought I would give the update.

Andrew,

Yeah, it looks borderline rideable. It will be a mudfest and the location of the fence might make it unrideable at this point (I am not exactly sure where it intersects the lake).

Do you know if the landowner owns the property to the north of the fence or the south?

I wonder if we could negotiate access. I would certainly pay for access. Do you know the name of the property owner? Perhaps, he would be willing to sell a portion of the property. The property adjacent to the lake can't be worth all that much since it will flood in high water years.

Thanks,

Kenny

Kenny look at the map under the thread "Rush Lake 2015". It shows where the private land is located and the location of the fence where the red dashed line is. It looks like where we park is private land and for some distance into the lake. South of the fence looks to be all BLM land.

Ouch! Unless we can get access on the East side, we do no longer have access!

The BLM was very reasonable back when i initially called about the fence and said that we could gain access via their land to the south if the owner was unwilling to allow us. I will give my guy from the BLM a shout tomorrow and see what options we have with them. We certainly have a leg to stand on now that there is water in the lake and that it is 'ride-able'.

Thanks, Andrew.

I wonder if we could park in the neighborhood just to the west and walk down to the lake? It would be a schlep, but still doable.

So talking to my buddy this morning (who took the pics), he could not see a fence out in the middle of the water. He said that he looked pretty close and even drove down onto our launch area. He didn't see any 'no trespassing' signs on the dirt road either. He was going to do another check but there is a chance that the fence may have been removed. No promises but let's cross out fingers. May be worth a trip out on a day when there is an actual chance for wind.

good job Carey. we have water but might have issues launching. this would be a good time to look for long term solutions? let me know what I can do to help?

BTW. Lets leave KWA out of this? They will cause more stink than it is worth.
I will get a hold of vern and doug and see what they think.

Yes, we need to be very careful with this owner. The sheriff was very clear about this guy being aggressive in prosecuting trespassers. My buddy confirmed that the fence is still in place and is located on the far south end of the water shown in the picture. That would put almost all of the water currently shown in the picture on top of this guys property. I tried calling the BLM yesterday about gaining access via their property to the south. This would solve the access problem as the current/past access used runs through this man's property. It would then be a matter of proving that the fence is a safety risk to normal recreation on the lake. All seems pretty simple but none of the agencies that I spoke with were willing to take this guy on even though they agreed that we have every right to be on the water 'on top of this guy's property'. It seems as though it would be litigation that we would have to bring against the man in order to get it removed. We now have a leg to stand on because their is water in the lake. It was a tough sell to these agencies when the thing was bone dry. Does anyone out there have experience with this kind of stuff or is an attorney that could give us some guidance?

ha ha I got kicked off KWA. I guess some are reading this forum

In the state of Utah, one cannot leagally own the water in a body of water. One can only own the waterbed. Rush Lake is a public recreation area, and is advertised as such by signs. Because the signs direct you to the launching area, you can go down there and recreate as you please. You can kiteboard all over this guys land and be fine, as long as you stay floating in the water and don't set foot on his land. He has no right to tell you to leave. As for the fence, someone needs to file a lawsuit against him. He has deliberately set up a major safety hazard on an advertised PUBLIC recreation area.

There does not seem to be very much water in the lake. I don't know if its even worth the trip. DC may be a better call.

It's time to lawyer up uwa. The longer the fence stays the more permenmant it becomes. I guess the UWA boards neefds to hear from the members about our need to keep access open. Not sure why this has not already been addressed. Who are the board members ?

I will contact a few of my attorney friends to see if I can find an attorney that specializes in this type of dispute.

I have a little different opinion than Mike. Currently, this issue is tough to fight because Rush is little more than a mud hole. Add water it won't be just the UWA fighting this issue, residents of Stockton and Toole have long enjoyed recreating on Rush Lake. If we try to combat it now, we stand alone, when the lake is actually in existence, it will not be hard to rally public and media support.

My suggestion is that we start planning now. Does anyone have any contacts at Nature's Conservancy or any other charitable organizations that are involved with activism on public and private lands?

Kenny

Kenny, opinions from an attorney would be very interesting to hear. I think they would be able to provide some guidance for a path forward. I do have a contact with the Nature Conservancy after doing some investigating around the SSB ownership. I will contact her to get some guidance or ideas around Rush. I will let you know what I find out.