Hope Springs Eternal for Stream Access Bill

By Daniel Testa, 4-11-07

Nothing is dead in the Montana Legislature, least of all the stream access issue.

One week after an unsuccessful move to “blast” onto the House floor a bill clarifying public access to Montana’s rivers and streams, Gov. Brian Schweitzer Wednesday resurrected the issue by tacking it onto a seemingly unrelated bill with an amendatory veto.

Democrats also announced plans to hold a rally Thursday demanding another vote on Senate Bill 78.

The original bill Schweitzer changed lifts a $500,000 cap on counties’ capital improvement fund for roads and bridges. It sailed through the Legislature with little opposition.

Schweitzer’s amendment would prohibit counties from spending any state money to improve bridges that do not provide access to rivers and streams.

“This is simple,” Schweitzer said in a statement. “This is the peoples’ right to fish and recreate on our rivers.”

Schweitzer’s move comes in the wake of a House Committee last week tabling SB78, which is the session’s remaining stream access legislation.

The bill clarifies a 2000 Attorney General’s opinion and describes how landowners can attach fences to county bridges so as not to restrict access from anglers attempting to get over, under or through.

Previous hearings for the bill have been packed emotional affairs, with landowners and agricultural interests on one side saying the bill erodes private property rights. Supporters of the bill include anglers, county commissioners and conservation groups who say the bill simply clarifies the public right to stream access and provides a way for landowners to legally attach fences to county bridges.

Schweitzer’s amended bill now returns to the House for approval.