One of the more popular dipnetting areas is the west bank of the Copper River in Woods Canyon. This area is accessible via the right-of-way established by the Copper River and Northwestern Railway that ran from the Kennecott copper mines near McCarthy to Cordova. The right-of-way is 300 feet wide, centered on the original line taken by the railroad tracks, 150 feet on each side of the center line.

The right-of-way traverses over what is now Native-corporation owned land. The landowners, the Ahtna and Chitina Native corporations, started charging fishers a trespass fee in 1991 to cross their property. This was done via an agreement with the State of Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game where $9 of the $10 Chitina dipnet permit fee was remitted to the land owners in exchange for access over their land to the fishing sites in the canyon. The remaining dollar of the permit fee went towards administering the permits. That fee remained until 1999 when the permit cost was bumped to $25. $6 of the fee went to ADF&G to administer the permits and to help defray the costs of garbage and toilet services with the remainder passing on to the landowners.

In 2000, at the urging of many dipnetters, the Chitina Dipnetters Association found State grant money to organize a thorough survey of the Copper River Highway right-of-way from O’Brien Creek to Haley Creek. The survey results revealed that most fishing sites were fully within the right-of-way. With this knowledge in hand, the CDA approached the State of Alaska and made an argument that since the dipnetting areas were within the right-of-way and, therefore, freely accessible to the public, that there was no justification for the trespass fees being paid to the Native corporations. In 2003 the Alaska Legislature removed the permit fee from statute. The fee was removed from the Chitina personal use permit beginning in the 2004 fishing season.