Colorado Whitewater Rafting Bill Seeks To Ease Tensions Between Landowners, Rafting Industry

Colorado Whitewater Rafting Bill Seeks To Ease Tensions Between Landowners, Rafting Industry

The stories have reached almost rural-myth status in Colorado's high country: rocks being thrown at paddlers, wires strung across rivers at head height, even occasional shots fired. The problem? Some private landowners really don't like it when rafters or kayakers float through their property.

Colorado law says boaters have a right to navigate rivers and streams crossing private land -- as long as they don't touch the riverbank -- but some landowners have interpreted a 1979 Colorado Supreme Court ruling to mean land rights extend to the river itself. Others have simply taken the law into their own hands.

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