Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Provo River topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DWR staff urge Blue Ribbon reviewers to consider access, easements when scoring Provo River
Summary
State fisheries staff walked the Great Salt Lake Blue Ribbon Council through angling conditions and access constraints on the Lower Provo River, noting private landholdings, an ongoing easement dispute and seasonal flow changes that affect when fish are available.
Division of Wildlife Resources staff told the Great Salt Lake Blue Ribbon Council that the Lower Provo River remains a productive trout fishery but that access and seasonal flow patterns should factor into this year’s Blue Ribbon waterbody assessments.
Why it matters: the council ranks waters for Blue Ribbon designation, and designations inform outreach, monitoring and funding priorities. DWR staff said access limitations and a pending landowner dispute make it important for reviewers to visit multiple reaches before final scoring.
DWR sport-fish staff described the days and places when anglers are most likely to encounter major hatches and fish activity on the portion of the Provo River between the trestle and Deer Creek State Park. Staff recommended reviewers sample the river in mid- to late April for spring hatches — particularly the blue‑winged olive hatch — and in afternoon hours when hatches historically intensify. "You can have some really good days fishing on the Lower Provo River," Mike Slater, sport fish project leader in the Springville office, told the council.
Slater and regional colleagues emphasized that timing matters: typical spring flows can rise substantially in mid‑April when snowmelt increases discharge. Staff said flows commonly climb from roughly 75 cubic feet per second (cfs) to several hundred cfs (they mentioned a typical jump to 200–400 cfs in spring), which changes where and how anglers fish. Slater advised reviewers to consider both low‑flow and higher‑flow conditions when scoring habitat and angling opportunity.
Access and easements: presenters walked the council through a DWR map showing private parcels and public sections on the river. DWR staff said parts of the river between the trestle and the Deer Creek campground are surrounded by multiple private landowners, creating confusion about where anglers can legally reach the water. Slater said earlier public messaging that "about 4 miles of river are locked up" overstated the contiguous length; staff later narrowed the estimate to roughly 1.7 miles of river where access is constrained between the trestle and the bottom of the campground, while noting additional privately held reaches nearby.
On the specific question of legal access, Slater said the division "believes we have an easement" for a contested stretch of river but that a landowner disputes that claim. "Anglers can fish in this stretch. However, the landowner disputes that," Slater said; he characterized the division's current public guidance as a cautious stance — neither telling anglers to avoid the reach nor encouraging unfettered access while litigation is pending.
Other details: presenters identified a number of public parking and put‑in areas that the division counts as reliable access (for example, Pine Run, the Sundance turnoff and the county‑line parking area). They noted some high‑quality dry‑fly sections and deeper, more bouldery reaches that are underfished but productive. Staff also invited council members to accompanying field visits and to participate in a planned electrofishing sampling effort: DWR said it is considering sampling the Lower Provo this coming fall (mid‑October), with final scheduling not yet decided (staff said the sampling could occur in either 2025 or 2026).
What was not decided: the council did not vote or otherwise change formal access policy during the meeting; the easement dispute remains unresolved and will be handled through DWR legal and land‑management channels. Staff repeatedly stressed that the access issues are separate from the biological question of whether the reach still merits Blue Ribbon status and encouraged reviewers to assess fish abundance and angling opportunity across multiple reaches and flow conditions.
Next steps: reviewers were asked to finish their waterbody scores by April 4 and to contact DWR staff to arrange field visits. Slater offered to lead or co‑host site visits and practical orientation for council members who want to see representative reaches before final scoring.
