Paul Ehrlich considers his 60 acres along the Big Thompson a gift, but he does not cherish the rafters and tubers who, he says, frequently trespass on his yard and have gone so far as to shove him when confronted.

And he wants to buy 25 head of cattle to graze his land — something he said he cannot do unless he can string a fence through the river to keep his livestock from escaping. Last month, he installed a four-strand barbed-wire fence across the river just east of Namaqua Park and found himself in hot water.

“That’s an absolute death trap,” said Battalion Chief Tim Smith of the Loveland Fire and Rescue Department. “We understand what his concerns are. We were more concerned about rafters in the water. If the water is high, and they come around the corner and don’t get out, it will kill them.”

After learning about Ehrlich’s fence, a sheriff’s deputy consulted with the county attorney, who provided him with a 1983 decision by the Colorado attorney general that prohibits fences across rivers. The deputy visited Ehrlich and told him he had to take down the fence.

Get more on this report at reporterherald.com.