The Idaho Bear Lake Public Lands
Committee met August 7 to discuss implementing new restrictions on lakeshore
access and use.
Members of the committee had met
with Governor Brad Little on July 20, one day after the governor had signed an
Idaho Board of Land order prohibiting certain activities below the high-water
mark of Bear Lake.
Most notably, the order prohibits
motor-vehicle travel parallel to the lakeshore, within the high-water boundary.
Vehicles may drive to the lake in a perpendicular direction only, and may not
park within 100 feet of the water, per the order.
County commissioners were
scheduled to vote on signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the state, at
the time this newspaper went to press. The effect of this document was to lay
out enforcement procedures for the new policies. The Department of Lands has no
enforcement authority, so enforcement on the Idaho side of the lake would fall
to county agencies.
The stated reasons for the new
order and memorandum were environmental protection and public safety, though
some parties at the August 7 meeting expressed misgivings about the practical
effects of enforcement. As it stands, much of the shoreline on both east and
west sides of the lake would become functionally off-limits, except to the adjacent
property owners.
Sheriff Bart Heslington, a member
of the committee, said that most of the policies in the new order were already
in place in the 1991 document that is being superseded, but that the new order
and memorandum will provide a mechanism for enforcement.
Bloomington mayor Roy Bunderson
spoke to question the new obligation of enforcement on the county’s side, given
the absence of funding from the state. On the south side of the lake, the state
of Utah provides funds to Rich County to offset enforcement costs.
Full versions of the governor’s
order and the Memorandum of Understanding can be found on this newspaper’s
Facebook page.
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