protecting montana's rivers
Why Are Realtors Lobbying for Setbacks on the Bitterroot?
By Dana Green, 5-17-06
Fishing guides versus realtors – now that has the makings for a hot political battle in Montana.
The two groups are going head-to-head in the Bitterroot Valley, at odds over who should control river and stream setbacks on the world-class fishing tributary.
Surprisingly, there is no law in Montana requiring building setbacks from rivers and streams. When landowners buy prime riverfront property, they can plunk their dream house right next to the river’s edge – and then demand the river be rip-rapped to keep erosion from eating up their Kentucky blue grass.
The evidence is clear on the Bitterroot River – on high banks, some houses are perched as close as they can get to the water outside the legal floodplain. In spots, the bank has been heavily rip-rapped, the riparian vegetation removed to make way for landscaping.
Part of the problem is that the Bitterroot refuses to stay put. Instead, it is constantly shifting – threatening structures built too close to the river’s edge.
When the river is rip-rapped to protect homes, however, it sends the water rushing down the channel – threatening other houses and destroying fish habitat.
“People move out here and want to put their deck over the (water),” said Eddie Olwell, a fishing guide and president of Bitterroot Trout Unlimited, who has been an active proponent of setbacks. “They don’t understand the dynamics of the river.”
The result of too-close development and rip-rap, water experts say, is a loss of critical riparian areas, habitat, and water quality.
But there’s another potential loss – an economic one. If development crowds the riverfront, Olwell and other guides fear a loss in business if the pristine Montana river loses its aesthetic appeal and its prime fly fishing.
Many Montana counties have already passed local setback laws – which vary widely, from Choteau County demanding hefty three-mile setbacks along the Wild and Scenic Missouri, to Gallatin County’s 500-foot setbacks to protect the Madison River.
In addition, conservation groups pushed hard to get a statewide setback law passed in the 2005 session: They heavily lobbied for Senate Bill 173, which would have created a fixed 300-foot setback on every river in Montana.
However, lobbying groups, including the Montana Board of Realtors, arguing a fixed setback wasn’t flexible and would create unrealistic setbacks, were able to defeat the bill.
The development community saw the writing on the wall – fearing a state setback law will be passed in 2007, they have launched an effort to spearhead setbacks laws throughout the state.
Last spring, the Bitterroot Valley Board of Realtors hired an outside consultant, Barbara Kitchens, who had conducted similar work for the Gallatin Board of Realtors, to direct the effort.
Kitchens launched a local setback working group – a mixed bag of developers, wildlife scientists, fishing guides, and water quality advocates.
But when the working group hired a hydrologist to map the streams and rivers, the realtors questioned the methodology used, according to a Ravalli Republic article.
“They picked a number out of the sky, like Gallatin did, and threw it on the water,” said consultant Kitchens. “We disagreed with that.”
The realtors hired a hydrologist of their own, who created his own mapping system.
Now, the local working group is split – with guides and scientists saying that the realtors’ methodology only protects homes, not critical fish habitat or riparian zones.
In some cases, the setbacks would be only seven to 10 feet, Olwell said.
“They said fish and wildlife were ‘warm and fuzzy’ issues,” he said. “Their methodology does not take into account fish, wildlife or riparian areas.”
The realtors deny that their mapping method is faulty, arguing that the method is a good start towards figuring out how and where the river will move in the future.
"They should be grateful that someone is willing to spend $500,000 to map tributaries in the Bitterroot," said Kitchens.
Which method is used on the Bitterroot could have implications across Montana – since realtors are hoping to make a similar effort to draft setbacks in other counties, according to Kitchens.
“I anticipate we’ll see it in other places (in Montana),” said Kitchens.
At this point, the remaining working group members are continuing their own stream mapping, which they believe will protect the river and vegetation – not just the homes along its borders.
They’re hoping the Ravalli County commissioners support their science when it is time to draft a setback ordinance.
The group is also hoping the realtors and remaining group members can work together – but they aren’t counting on it, Olwell said.
“The board of realtors went around the working group and marketed (their methodology),” said Olwell. “Is that in the best interest of Ravalli County? It (seems) like it’s in the best interest of the realtors and the landowners along the river. This needs to be a community effort.”
The next Ravalli County Setbacks Working Group meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 22, at 1:30 p.m.
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I can assure you the plunderers and
privatizers never rest so keep it up.
Jackie Corr, Butte
Kudos to Choteau County, by the way.
As for myself, if the public battles taking place now on the Ruby and the Bitterroot are lost, the decent people of Montana might as well put their floats, paddles and fishing gear in storage.
Jackie Corr, Butte
"Obviously, these people have forgotten, or never paid any attention, or maybe just weren't around, when the Bitterroot changed it's main stream by as much as a half-mile east or west (the flow is from south to north, basically) in several sections in a single season. This has happened just since I've been living around here, since 1980. At least two fairly expensive new houses, to my knowledge, were completely trapped by these moves and then disappeared. Rip-rapping didn't help. Indeed, rip-rapping is a mere palliative, at best, on the Bitterroot."
"This river flows through a major geological fault. Every geologist in the west knows this. You'd think a realtor would know that. It's one of the most unstable river bottoms in the country. Essentially, it's one huge block fault, from Hamilton to Lolo, a distance of some twenty miles."
"Upstream from Hamilton it's more stable, but not entirely: I've seen the main channel shift a half-mile from the beginning of runoff until the flow settled, a matter of three months, between Hamilton and Darby."
"It's just silliness. My feeling is that the state ought to declare the Bitterroot and several others "scenic corridors" and ban all building within eyesight from the river."
"An easy, reliable guide to situation can be found in David Alt and Donald Hyndman's Roadside Geology of Montana. That explains the fault block that dominates the Bitterroot Valley."
But streams also must be protected – they feed the river and serve as spawning grounds for fish.
Sterling Miller
Missoula, MT.
As a good Realtor friend pointed out, the term "Realtor" is a trademarked term – reserved for those members of the national Realtor association. Otherwise, they are real estate brokers or agents.
Thanks for the clarification!