The Browns Park area is a unique, productive landscape full of potential. With its relative mild climate and snowfall, the area has an abundance of winter deer range, servicing both the North Slope and Diamond Mountain units. The Green River C section flows through Browns Park, encompassing 13 river miles of world-class blue ribbon fishing. The river section is an extremely popular spot for both water recreationists and fishermen using floating watercraft, and is becoming more and more popular as crowding becomes a concern on the Green River A and B sections. The Browns Park Waterfowl Management Area is managed by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and contains a series of perennial and intermittent waterfowl ponds. These ponds are utilized by both migratory and resident bird populations. Additionally, the DWR annually releases pheasants in the Browns Park WMA fields for hunters to enjoy. This year's phase 1 project seeks to increase safe, reliable access for launching and loading rafts, tubes and boats on the Green River. We have an existing place where people launch watercraft on the Bridgeport section of the WMA (aka Cowboy Bar launch). This is a very popular spot with boaters because a) it is adjacent to paved road; b) it provides additional river length (~2 miles) and a segment of some of the best fishing on the river vs the upstream Indian Crossing boat ramp; c) it is an underutilized location; d) it has shady area picnic facility; e) it has an official dispersed camping site. We intend to complete a series of actions at the Bridgeport area that would make this launching location both easier and safer for recreationists while spreading users out. To complete this segment of the project, we are seeking to create an additional parking area approximately 75 meters northwest of the existing parking area (same size as the existing parking area); closing and reclaiming the current river access point that is a rocky, erosive mess; installing a new access point approximately 50 meters upstream of the existing access point that has better river flow characteristics for maintaining a boat ramp. The current river ramp is adjacent to a riffle on the Green River. This is a difficult spot to ever have a ramp because of the swift water making launching unsafe, but the river has the energy to wipe out any gravel improvements in this section. Additionally, the river doesn't have the necessary depth during baseflow conditions to safely launch a vessel. The new proposed ramp location is upstream at the tail end of a pool (glide) feature where it is erosion/deposition neutral - the river doesn't have the power to erode any feature we place here, but it has the necessary current to negate any deposition issues. The ramp will be constructed of a flexible material rather than a poured concrete ramp to maintain primitive characteristics while keeping costs lower. Future phases of this project will 1) Create a project phase to repair a 1/2 mile long cutbank on the Green River. 2) Repair, replace, and/or develop water infrastructure projects on the Browns Park WMA to make this facility once again operational for wetlands and waterfowl. 3) Repair or replace infrastructure related to camping and picnic facilities along the C section of the Green River on BLM.

1. Continue to pursue external funding to implement a stream bank repair project component. 2. Construct new Bridgeport raft and drift boat ramp/access. Rehab old Bridgeport access point. 3. Internally form plans to rehab Browns Park WMA wetland infrastructure in a phase II concept. 4. Work with BLM in FY27 to identify camping and user access areas needing additional attention along the Browns Park/Green River C section corridor.

The Bridgeport boat access has multiple reasons for this category. Why here? Indian Crossing ramp is 2 miles away and is the only improved boat ramp location along the C section of the Green. It has limitations that the Bridgeport boat ramp location does not - access to more stream miles, better road access. Why now? The Green River is experiencing ever more boat traffic every year. By constructing a ramp here at Bridgeport, we have an opportunity to spread this traffic - whether that be via encouraging more floats on the Green River B section (from the A, which is the busiest by far) or by spreading out use on the C section and alleviate traffic issues at the Indian Crossing boat ramp. Improving our Bridgeport ramp has been tabbed as one of the highest priorities for the Green River by local angler and Dutch John guides. We have put forward funding proposals into Boater Access grant and Division of Outdoor Recreation (DOR) grant. Pending the outcome of those funding proposal processes, the time will be ripe to utilize all partnership funds to secure and complete this project. In the process of applying for the DOR grant, we secured multiple stakeholder support statements/letters for this project, including from Daggett County and several local area businesses.

Green River comprehensive management plan (Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands): identifies the need for increasing accessibility for the river for recreation and fishing, primarily through the lenses of managing growing use, improving infrastructure to support these activities, and balancing access with resource protection. Stakeholders identified the need to improve existing or create new boater access points as a management concern. The plan discusses the importance of maintaining the correct level of access points, where too few access points limit experience to the river, create crowding, and reduce the public support for and use of the river. This statement goes to the heart of what this project seeks to accomplish with the Bridgeport boater access component. Daggett County Management Plan: This plan identifies the Green River as a "World-class Blue Ribbon Fishery" and notes its importance to quality of life and economics. This plan extensively discusses boating as a critical economic driver and outlines objectives to maintain and enhance access to water-based recreation. Land Management Plan for the Ashley National Forest (2024): This plan discusses the maintenance, management, and improvement of boating access and identifies the Green River as a primary context. The plan identifies and acknowledges a management challenge to "maintain and expand recreational opportunities" around the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area (NRA) to support local economies while maintaining natural settings. The plan also identifies that the NRA, including the Green River corridor, experience high use/impacted areas; the plan seeks to maintain and expand recreation opportunities around the NRA to support local economies while managing the growing recreational demands. Few places in the Ashley National Forest have growing recreational demands like the Green River corridor. By reconstructing the Bridgeport boat ramp, we have an opportunity to spread access and use of the Green River to areas of the river not as impacted by that use and alleviate some of the impacted areas concern. The 2025 Utah State Resource Management Plan identifies the importance of boating, whitewater rafting, and maintaining access to these features. It also extensively discusses the importance of conservation and improvement of rangelands and the support of the ranching industry, phrasing these as integral to Utah's history, culture, and economy. The plan outlines state program, management strategies, and policy positions designed to assist ranchers and restore rangeland health. Improving the river interface to devise a win-win project goes hand-in-hand with the directives of the State of Utah Resource Management Plan.

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The Bridgeport boat ramp feature improvement will have a positive effect on water quality. The current access point is subject to erosion whenever the river is high, or stormwater runs down the current feature and picks up fine sediments. The rehab work we intend to do to close the current access point will help mitigate some of this erosion and spread water energy out before it is allowed to erode parking lot and vehicle access paths, in addition to using native vegetation to prevent further headcutting adjacent to the river.

All archaeological clearances and stream alteration permits will be acquired prior to the initiation of work. This project may require NEPA in future phases if the design utilizes federal funding, or has an impact to adjacent BLM property. This is not anticipated for the Bridgeport boat access, but the streambank design work may conclude a benefit to completing work across the property boundary of that component of the project.

Bridgeport Boat ramp: DWR staff have already completed a site tour and project estimate with our DWR Heavy Equipment crew. We anticipate all components of the project will be feasible with our staff except for the archaeological clearance, which we anticipate consulting out as outlined under the finance page. Methods will include- 1) obtaining necessary archaeological clearances, permissions, or project alterations if an unanticipated artifact is found. 2) Obtaining a stream alteration permit to rehabilitate the current river access point with vegetation and roaded public closure, and impact the area identified under the project map with a fleximat structure to stabilize soil for boat launching. 3) Create a path via heavy equipment by removing vegetation (avoiding ground disturbance in case artifacts could be buried). Most of the vegetation is greasewood. Haul greasewood off site and dispose. Utilize a local gravel source, haul gravel in to construct new, flat grade road to new parking lot. Similarly, build up gravel base for parking area identified under project map. Gravel base is expected to be 6-8" thick for road and parking lot. Construct single lane road down to river channel. Install concrete flex-a-mat product on top of gravel material for stable feature that can handle light boat traffic while not having people get stuck or ruin their boat trailers. Methods in future phases will focus heavily on replacing pumps, retrofitting canals, diversion structures, and pond improvements to improve wetland features at Browns Park WMA. Additional expected work will focus on improving boat-in access camp sites along the C-section. This is expected to include new campfire rings, boat hitching posts, river signs, picnic tables, and tenting areas. Future streambank repairs will likely involve creating j-hooks, cross vanes, random boulder placement, and tow wood structure to rehab and secure river banks.

We will set up fixed-point photography locations so that we can monitor the progression of this project through time. Additionally, we anticipate creating new sampling locations within the C section prior to this project being implemented. We will strongly consider doing some electrofishing before and after project completion along the bank to observe fish abundance changes. We intend to complete a creel survey of the C section in FY28; through this creel survey, we will be able to monitor use of the improved Bridgeport Boat ramp. We will monitor the boat ramp improvements annually to ensure erosion, deposition, use, and other unforeseen issues do not become a problem, and implement repairs as necessary.

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Trout Unlimited, BLM, Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation (funding application), Boater Access Program (funding application), local guides and businesses. These partners will have a voice in structure design and placement and be involved in the project process. Several of the partners are anticipated funding sources.

We expect this project to be the first phase of multiple others to address concerns on/near Browns Park WMA. Additionally, we will continue to approach this project with adaptive management in mind so that we can quickly address any new concerns that may arise. Future management will include additional actions to secure our Browns Park WMA wetlands, secure and improve boat-in camping locations on DWR and BLM property, and develop the implementation phase of the streambank rehabilitation proposal.

This project will have direct improvements on the water quality and aquatic habitat of the Green River. Specifically, benefits will be located within and downstream of the C-section of the river below Flaming Gorge Dam. We expect the actions we are proposing will help support quality fishing through this section of the river. Further, the actions we are proposing will improve the aesthetics of the river through the project reach. The boat ramp, camp site, and picnic area will directly be improved through this proposal, and leads to sustainable uses including improved camping, fishing, and recreational access/floaters/rafters through the Green River C Section. Further phases will additionally focus on improving camping, recreational floating, fisheries resource improvements, and hunting experiences within the Browns Park area.