BY DAVID GRANT LONG

In another debate over private-property rights versus the right of public access, a state agency has asked a district judge to order a property owner to remove a fence that blocks access to a popular lake north of Mancos.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife has petitioned District Judge Sharon Hansen for a preliminary injunction that would force Jim Kreutzer to remove the barbed wire fence he erected on a road in his Summit Ridge property at the west side of A.M. Puett Reservoir, a local fishing hole and recreation area that has been maintained and stocked by the state for decades.

"The real dispute appears to be (over) the public’s right to recreate as they have historically done since 1965," Colorado Assistant Attorney General Brad Cameron said during his opening statement Monday in District Court in Cortez.

Cameron recounted that the fence, complete with signs stating "Closed to Public," was erected in December shortly after his office was contacted by Kreutzer’s company, Echo Basin LLC, to express concerns over "management and use issues."

Kreutzer has not been associated with the Echo Basin Ranch near Mancos for two years, a ranch employee said.

Attempts to reach Kreutzer on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Floyd Smith, one of two lawyers representing Echo Basin, disagreed with Cameron, arguing that the public’s right to use the lake itself was unchallenged. Smith said the central question involves what rights the Summit Reservoir and Irrigation Company and other property owners conveyed in the easements that created a right-of-way to the lake, and whether the state has lived up to the conditions of those easements.

"A great deal depends on Summit Reservoir (Company) and the rights it granted," Smith said in his response.

Echo Basin owns approximately 1,800 acres adjacent to the lake and reportedly plans to subdivide it into 35-acre home sites for an upscale development. Nearby neighbors recently protested the barbed-wire barricade before the Montezuma County commissioners, maintaining that the developer has effectively sealed off the lake for his own use.

Puett has been maintained by the DOW since the 1960s, when an easement for an access road and an easement to the reservoir were obtained from various owners, but use of the lake has increased since the road was improved and a boat ramp constructed two years ago. A small campground was also built next to the lake by the DOW as a condition of another property owner’s perpetual easement.

However, the fence erected by Kreutzer to prevent trespass and damage on his property now seals off the boat ramp from the access road, which is apparently an unmaintained county road.

On Monday, Cameron introduced dozens of documents to bolster his case for continued public access while a complaint requesting a permanent injunction works its way through the court system, a process which could take years to complete.

". . . (T)he public will suffer immediate and irreparable injury, loss and damage due to lost recreational opportunities if Echo Basin is allowed to block access," according to the request for an injunction.

Tony Gurzick, the DOW regional wildlife manager for southwest Colorado, testified that the original 1964 agreement with Summit granted the DOW perpetual easements to nearby Summit and Joe Moore lakes as well as Puett, and that it guaranteed public ingress and egress to the areas for "hunting, fishing, boating and other recreational uses."

Gurzick said Kreutzer had contacted him in December to express concerns about "trespassing, vandalism and the validity of the easements."

Kreutzer informed him the road and campground were being surveyed, and that they would then be fenced, Gurzick said. Two weeks later, the fence was in place and the Colorado Wildlife Commission asked the state to file for the permanent injunction forbidding any blockage of the access.

Under cross-examination, Gurzick said that an old bus owned by Frankie Lopez was also blocking the access road through his property and yet Lopez has not been cited for this obstruction.

"So it’s imperative to get an injunction today to remove the fence, but the bus is not important?" Smith asked sarcastically.

Longtime Montezuma County resident Kirk Underwood testified that his family has used Puett since the 1970s for fishing and other activities year-round and said the boat ramp was a welcome addition, since boats had to be put in by hand previously.

"I’d like my children to have the same access and enjoyment I’ve had," he said.

Howard Williams, who has lived on the edge of the lake for 27 years, testified that he has always permitted access for recreation on his portion of the land and that for the most part this has created no problems, although use has increased a lot since the road was improved.

Dave Langlois, a DOW senior biologist, testified that Puett, which contains channel catfish, walleye, northern pike, bass and yellow perch, has been stocked with fish regularly since 1964, except for a few years when fish were scarce at the hatcheries.

Former game warden Bill Fischer, who patrolled that area for several decades, noted that access had never been blocked before, but admitted the road had been in terrible shape until it was improved by the DOW in 1998.