Wilder opens window for rafters to float Taylor River

Developer’s offer covers companies this summer

Here in the seam at the end of spring fishing and the high water of boating season, Lewis Shaw—the owner of the resort on the Taylor River, Wilder on the Taylor—is reeling in his threats of legal action against two local rafting companies. The offer: follow six rules ranging from timing of the trips to respecting water levels in the Taylor, and take a few trips through the property this summer. Then the two sides can take time to talk about the future.

Shaw, the CEO of Texas-based developer Jackson-Shaw, told the owners of Three Rivers Outfitting and Scenic River Tours last year that they wouldn’t be able to take clients through his private property, which he is billing as an exclusive fishing retreat.
The issue sparked a statewide battle between private property advocates and public river users. It has even spawned a host of proposed citizen-led ballot initiatives and a bill on the floor of the legislature, House Bill 1188. The bill died last week when the legislative session ended after the Commercial Rafting Viability Act failed to make it out of a conference committee.
And Gunnison Rep. Kathleen Curry, who championed the bill in the state house, said she probably will not pursue a similar bill next year, if she is re-elected.
 “I don’t plan to run legislation next year because … the issue was so contentious the personal toll this bill took was too high. I don’t see the point in working on a ‘compromise’ proposal just to have it killed next year in the legislature by the big money landowner interests,” she says. “If both sides were willing to agree to a solution and then stick by their word when the time came, then I think it would be worth pursuing this issue further. But, based on what happened this year, I have little hope for that.”
Now, outside of ongoing mediation, Shaw is saying he won’t press trespass charges against either Three Rivers or Scenic River Tours if the rafters limit the timing and number of trips, cover Wilder’s liability in the event of an injury and keep their angling flies out of the water.
In a statement Shaw said, “While mediation between Jackson-Shaw and the two Taylor River rafting companies continues, Jackson-Shaw recognizes that Three Rivers and Scenic are at the threshold of their commercial rafting season and that it will take time to finalize any formal agreement.
Accordingly, as a show of good faith, Jackson-Shaw has decided to give Three Rivers and Scenic permission to float through Wilder on the Taylor this summer.”
And while Scenic River Tours co-owner Matt Brown thinks Shaw made a nice gesture, it isn’t getting to the heart of the problem and still leaves “hundreds” of his clients outside the May 15 to August 15 window that is opened for the rafters in the developer’s offer.
This week, Brown was happy to see the signs of spring, with trips stacking up to make this an “about average” year. The company’s peak comes around the Fourth of July holiday and continues through the middle of the month. Scenic River’s season might last late into the fall with fishing trips, even though Shaw’s concessions don’t stretch that far.
Brown says he’s “still running quite a few trips after August 15. That is our season.”
Even though Brown isn’t willing to say too much about the offer because of a non-disclosure agreement that is part of his company’s mediation with Jackson-Shaw, he gladly read a statement backing the rafters from the Colorado River Outfitters Association.
Brown said, “While it is a positive development that Mr. Shaw has backed down from his attempt to block boating enthusiasts and professionals from accessing a public river, the fact remains that neither of our companies nor any other CROA member outfitter nor any other rafter or kayaker needs permission from Mr. Shaw to float the Taylor River.
 “We will be evaluating these newly proposed conditions and discussing them with Mr. Shaw as the mediation moves forward,” Brown continued. “We will continue to try to be good neighbors as we raft the Taylor River this summer, as we have for more than two decades.”
As long as boaters have been running the Taylor freely, they have had to take out and portage around a bridge on the Wilder property. Shaw’s offer gives them the permission to continue doing that.
The two rafting companies will have to decide how to share the four commercial trips that will be allowed through the property each day, with two going through between 9:30 and 11 a.m., followed by the others between 1:30 and 3 p.m. And even inside the three-month window, Shaw says the rafters shouldn’t float through Wilder when the water level is below 200 cubic feet per second below the Taylor Dam.
Water tables from the U.S. Geological Survey show that, since 2000, the water level on the river fluctuates right around that 200 cfs mark in mid-May. In a dry year, like 2002, the Taylor River didn’t hit 200 cfs until the second week of June and then dropped below 200 cfs again by the first week of August. In wet years, like 2008, flows exceeded 200 cfs for the entire period.
Wilder ranch manager Don Sabrowski has been working on the property for the past 15 years and over that time has seen the place change hands and names, from the working Wapiti Ranch to the resort it is today. And he understands why the concerns have changed, too.
 “The main conflict that we’ve got here is that a lot of [Shaw’s] guests that we’ve got, their sole purpose for coming out here is to fish,” Sabrowski said. “And he wants to preserve that.”
According to Shaw, the rules he has laid out are meant “to balance the commercial rafting with fly fishing by guests of Jackson-Shaw and Harmel’s Ranch Resort and to protect the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fish habitat improvements Jackson-Shaw has made,” which explains the rule about not fishing through the property.
Matt Brown does a lot of fishing business as well. But some of the prime months for booking float trips on the Taylor are in September and October, after Shaw’s offer expires.
According to the release, scheduling conflicts have delayed a second mediation meeting at the Judicial Arbiters Group in Denver, which was started at Governor Bill Ritter’s request. The two groups will meet again May 26.
 “So long as Three Rivers and Scenic are willing to accept Jackson-Shaw’s permission and follow these simple terms, Jackson-Shaw will allow the rafting companies to conduct rafting trips through the property this summer,” Shaw concluded. “Acceptance by these two rafting companies of these terms will not prevent mediation from continuing. However, it will give the two companies some certainty as the rafting season begins.”