"Trapper Pete" Buist -- you are dead wrong. Your public land law "expertise" is sorely lacking. There is no mistaken assumption in the Sturgeon decision that the bed is federal "public land."  The Submerged Lands Act of 1953 affirms that the BED is state-owned land. But that fact does not deprive the the US of jurisdiction over use and management of the WATER above that bed and within a conservation unit -- regardless of state ownership of the bed.  The feds, under the Commerce Clause and the Property Clause of the US Constitution, retain exclusive federal authority over the water of navigable rivers: read ANILCA  at 43 US Code Sec. 3207.  The Submerged Lands Act transferred to the State only the title to the beds of navigable waterways, and ownership of the resources in the waters -- not title to or control over the waters themselves.  Sorry, you lose.