Idaho Code
Idaho Code § 36-1601 (2026)
Public waters — Highways for recreation.
✓ current as of May 2026
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Public waters — Highways for recreation.
(a) Navigable Streams Defined. Any stream which, in its natural state, during normal high water, will float cut timber having a diameter in excess of six (6) inches or any other commercial or floatable commodity or is capable of being navigated by oar or motor propelled small craft for pleasure or commercial purposes is navigable.
(b) Recreational Use Authorized. Navigable rivers, sloughs or streams within the meander lines or, when not meandered, between the flow lines of ordinary high water thereof, and all rivers, sloughs and streams flowing through any public lands of the state shall be open to public use as a public highway for travel and passage, up or downstream, for business or pleasure, and to exercise the incidents of navigation — boating, swimming, fishing, hunting and all recreational purposes.
(c) Access Limited to Navigable Stream. Nothing herein contained shall authorize the entering on or crossing over private land at any point other than within the high water lines of navigable streams except that where irrigation dams or other obstructions interfere with the navigability of a stream, members of the public may remove themselves and their boats, floats, canoes or other floating crafts from the stream and walk or portage such crafts around said obstruction re-entering the stream immediately below such obstruction at the nearest point where it is safe to do so.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3
cases, 1977–2019 · leading case: Selkirk-Priest Basin Ass'n, Inc. v. State Ex Rel. Andrus, 899 P.2d 949 (Idaho 1995).
Selkirk-Priest Basin Ass'n, Inc. v. State Ex Rel. Andrus, 899 P.2d 949 (Idaho 1995). “The Claims Under I.C. § 36-1601 and I.C. § 67-4305 Were Not Raised Below.”
Kramer v. City of Lake Oswego, 446 P.3d 1 (Or. 2019). “See Idaho Code Ann. § 36-1601 (public has right to use "navigable stream," but that right of use does not "authorize the entering on or crossing over private land"); Montana Constitution, Art IX, § 7 ("The opportunity to harvest wild fish and wild game animals is a heritage that…”
Ritter v. Standal, 566 P.2d 769 (Idaho 1977). “That same Session Law enacted a new I.C. § 36-1601, effective on January 1, 1977, which provides in pertinent part: “36-1601.”
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