BOARD00744

• Board Meeting Date: 7/10/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

~h~ wild r~ve+s qct has som~ restr~ct~ons in it concerning the ownership
of land. The act provides that a wild river designation cannot contain
more than 320 acres per mile of river, counting both sides of the river.
If you distribute it equally, it would be half of that amount on each
side of the river. That would never work out exactly that way, but I
there is a restriction on the amount of land that can be included within
the wild and scenic river areas. There is a further restriction that
not more than 100 acres per mile, that's on both sides of the river, or
let's say 50 acres on either side of the river per mile, can be acquired
in fee title, or by exercising condemnation authority. So there is a
limitation then on the amount of private land which can be taken.

The committee determined that about 20 percent of the
ownership and the remainder is in federal ownership.
be no problem so far concerning the limitation on the
private lands.

area was in private
There appears to
acquisition of

There are no cultivated areas that the committee was able to determine
on the Colorado side of the Colorado River in that area. The lower area,
the Ruby Canyon area, contains the main line of the DRG Western Railroad.
The upper part, the Horsethief Canyon area, is essentially in a primi-
tive condition. There are no roads, buildings, or anything of that
nature in that area.

This stretch of the river described in the bill appears to qualify in
all respects for inclusion under the wild rivers designation. We looked
at the area with a particular view of determining whether or not the
inclusion of that area would have any significant effect upon the devel-
opment of the water resources of the state of Colorado. We concluded
that it would not.

(Mr. Sparks used a demonstration map to illustrate this part of his
presentation.)

To give you a brief description of the area - starting here on the Colo-
rado River near Lorna, there is a little island in the river called
Skippers Island. There are professional boat tours which take people on
trips down the river and exit near Cisco, Utah.

The bill apparently contains an error. From Skippers Island down here
to the Utah state line, is a distance of 22.8 miles. However, the bill
gives the distance at 12 1/2 miles. We think there was an error made
in the drafting of the bill. The bill only includes the Ruby Canyon
area, this lower portion. Horsethief Canyon, which is the really

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