New Bear Lake Law Opens Access For Beach-goers

Eli Lucero/Herald Journal

The Herald Journal

By Kevin Opsahl Staff writer
Reprinted with permission

GARDEN CITY — As the executive directors of Bear Lake Watch, David and Claudia Cottle spent years working on a comprehensive management plan with land managers to allow easy motorized and vessel use on the giant lake spanning Utah and Idaho.

Then in 2013, House Bill 333 became law, restricting motor or vessel access to people who owned property “adjacent” to Bear Lake and only allowing them to do it in areas designated by the state as open — all to hamper the threat of invasive species. Later, during the famed Raspberry Days, the Cottles became “buried” with people complaining about HB 333, they said.

Before they knew it, David and Claudia, of Fish Haven, Idaho, and a handful of other area residents, were at the Utah Legislature speaking in support of a new bill, known as HB 140, co-sponsored this year by Rep. Curt Webb, R-Providence.

“Anyone who goes to Bear Lake knows that the blue goes straight from your eyes to your heart,” Claudia said in an interview with The Herald Journal earlier this week. “The passion is there from thousands of people around Utah and Southeast Idaho.”

Claudia emphasized that Bear Lake Watch, a citizens group dedicated to preserving and protecting the turquoise lake, played a minimal role in seeing HB 140 pass the Legislature and receive a signature by the governor.

Under the new law, the Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands issues permits to anyone, allowing them to launch or retrieve a motorboat on state lands surrounding Bear Lake. A permit is required for all motorboat activities.

As for motorized access, people are allowed to travel within no more than 100 feet of the water’s edge to launch or retrieve a motorboat — if the person is permitted to do so — to transport an individual with limited mobility, or deposit or retrieve equipment to a beach site.

Beach-goers can also travel in a motorized vehicle parallel to the water’s edge no more than 500 yards in each direction in areas designated by the state as open. They’re also allowed motorized access to and from the beach site. But they can’t drive recklessly or exceed a speed limit of 10 miles per hour.

Now, as the jam-packed tourism season in the Bear Lake area comes to a close, citizens and public officials are reflecting on the law’s effect on the area.

“A paradigm shift”

Webb emphasizes his bill that become law restores access to public property by saying the Utah beachfront is open everywhere “except where the state can justify closure.”


“You’ll see signs that say, ‘This area of the beach is closed,’” Webb explained. “There are a few areas that are environmentally sensitive.”


There are also signs around the beaches of Utah’s side of Bear Lake outlining the motorized and boat access rules of the new law.


Matt Coombs, Forestry, Fire and State Lands’ sovereign lands coordinator, told The Herald Journal “the paradigm shift” Webb refers to is a major part of the new law.

“We created a motorized access plan for Bear Lake, HB 140 has sped us up on that process; based on that plan, we marked some areas that have been closed historically ... and then areas that were marked were opened, so we’ve seen a lot more vehicles on the beach this year,” Coombs said. “That was the first step. There are still going to be some management decisions in terms of what areas are open, what areas are closed.”

Coombs said the state recognizes the need to open access while also protecting habitats.

“That’s part of our job is to strike that balance,” he said.

In terms of vessel access to the lake under the new law, Webb emphasizes the popular marina has always been open to boat users and will continue to be; but now that anyone can launch under the new law, they have to be educated about invasive species like quagga mussels.

Webb, who owns property at Bear Lake, is happy with the way the his bill is being enforced.

“I believe that the state and those who are charged with planning uses for Bear Lake’s sovereign lands have accepted the shift and have begun to govern accordingly,” Webb said. “This summer is evidence of that. Looking ahead, I believe governance will be refined and improved to afford reasonable and orderly public access to all citizens of our state, whose land it is.”

Earlier this month, Rich County deputy Sheriff Matt Landfair sat in his patrol car and surveyed the people out using Garden City beach. Activity was sparse on that late summer day, but it was only a few weeks ago that people were using motorized vehicles — under certain conditions — on the beach.

“It’s almost a compromise,” Landfair explained. “They are allowed access on the beach, however, only within certain perameters. The typography of the beach changes on a regular basis ... so in order to preserve that, we need to control the amount of motor vehicles driving up and down.”

Now that the law is in effect, Webb said he’d like to hear public feedback about it.

“We did it so that everyone had access to public ground — I hope that’s what we’ve been able to accomplish,” the Providence lawmaker said. “This lake is worth protecting, it is the gem of the state, in my opinion, for recreation. We have to have that balance of use of public lands for the benefit of everybody.”

Access controversy

Darin Pugmire, a life-long Bear Lake area resident who is on the town council and owns a business on the lake, said before HB 333 came along, there were relatively “no issues” for people to access the lake.

“It was wide open all around,” Pugmire said. “There was no quota on what you could and couldn’t do and unfortunately people abused that; we didn’t have the number of people then that we do now. Because of the number of people, that’s why the Legislature had to pass something to make sure there were some teeth into what they’re proposing."

In 2013, then Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland, sponsored HB 333.

The bill satisfied lake homeowners but angered Bear Lake area residents and people from out of town who used the lake for recreation.

Menlove could not be reached by The Herald Journal this week.

Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, who carried Menlove’s bill through the Senate, supported the 2013 bill, but told The Herald Journal he didn’t understand the bill as well as he thought. Hillyard was interested in the bill’s restrictive access to prevent boat-goers from potentially bringing the invasive species such as quagga mussels into Bear Lake.

“It went further than that; it gave Garden City too much police power,” Hillyard said.

When HB 333 went into effect, it drove down business in Bear Lake/Garden City, Pugmire observed at the time.

“It pushed a lot of them down to the valley, down to the north end of the lake; it stays warmer there,” he said. “It pushed a lot of business out of Garden City.”

But it’s hard tell how much it impacted to tourism industry in the area overall, because the number of people coming to Bear Lake every summer increased.

“The worst thing that ever happened (was that Bear Lake) was not open to the public,” Pugmire said. “But we all know that’s not the way it works on sovereign lands. I’m glad we got (the law) changed; now everyone has the same exact ability to access the lake.”

Hillyard changed his approach during the 2015 session with Webb’s new Bear Lake bill.

“This time, I made sure I was involved in all of the discussions so I knew better about what this bill is doing. Curt’s bill does open it up and I feel comfortable where it ended up — some people are unhappy about it because cabin owners think they own the land all the way down to the water. They don’t; it belongs to all of us.”

He added, “As we watch what happens we may have to fine tune (Webb’s bill) some, but I think Curt did a masterful job on it.”

However, Hillyard believes the 2013 bill was the starting point for some improvements with Bear Lake access.

“I think it did one good thing: It taught us where this line ought to be,” the senior lawmaker said. “Maybe (the 2013 bill) did go to far, but maybe we needed a wake up call to really make people think a minute, ‘You know, I have an obligation to make sure I don’t transport quagga mussels to Bear Lake which are infested in Lake Powell.’”

Garden City Mayor John Spuhler said the new law is beneficial to Bear Lake and its summer season. He was against certain parts of the bill earlier this year, as was Pugmire, before it went ahead in the legislative process.

“I think, at the end of the day, the changes that he made enhances the experience,” the mayor said. “The bill didn’t create more access as much as ease of use and more defined use policies. People came to respect the (need to protect the) environment and sovereign lands did a great job of identifying what areas were off limits. It’s going to be good for years to come.”

Spuhler thanked Webb, saying the law as currently written was possible because of compromise between Garden City officials and Webb. Back in a February Garden City conference call with city officials and residents, many people worried Bear Lake beaches would be turned into a race way under the bill’s initial language.

“Because of the intent of motorized access is to get a spot on the beach for your day use, that made all of the difference in the world, because of the compromise Rep. Webb made,” Spuhler said. “The original bill did not represent that — and no one wanted the beach to become a raceway on the beach. Because he wrote that intent language in there, it makes it easy for our deputies and ordinance people to go down and say, ‘your not allowed to do that; you can bring your stuff down the beach and park here.’ Without that, this bill could have been fairly disastrous.”