“unfiltered” commentary

Public Ownership of Montana Streams Under Attack

By K Durham, Unfiltered 2-21-07

As a published outdoor writer and lifelong outdoor enthusiast, it is with great interest and anxiety that I have been following the attempts of a few wealthy landowners and their political patsies in the state legislature to illegally usurp public ownership of Montana’s waterways.

I am referring, of course, to opposition to Senate Bill 78, which requires landowners to comply with Montana law, as well as the introduction of House bills 424 and 642, which attempt to frustrate legal access to public waterways.

One thing that often is not understood about the terms “public land” and “public resource” in reference to land, game, and waters, is that “public” means “public” – not “government.” Montana’s streams belong to you, Montanans, not to your government. Whether you are a Republican or Democrat, those are your waters to enjoy. Private property rights are already protected under Montana law. What is under attack is public ownership of Montana’s streams and rivers.

When state legislators irresponsibly allow private landowners to seize, restrict, or limit access to Montana streams up to the high water mark (as defined in Montana’s 1985 Stream Access Law), they are allowing a few landowners not only to break existing law, but also to effectively steal your stream or river and make it their own, with no remuneration, restitution, or consequence for that theft of the public’s property. And you can be certain that, unless you are a mega-rich angler who can pay thousands of dollars for a vacation at an elite fly fishing resort, you will never again enjoy what once was yours to enjoy. Nor will your children.

Here in Colorado, one needs only to visit a depressed little community like Kremmling and explore its environs to see what private ownership of streams and once-public lands does to popular tourism. Want to fish one of the beautiful streams or rivers you see? Forget it, unless you are rich and can afford an “exclusive” fishing vacation. Want to access some of the hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest land above the valley floor? Ha! The once-public access routes have been sold off to private ownership, and now you will be asked to pay a minimum of $250 to drive on what once was a USFS road in order to reach National Forest land. The local community is dying because the regular, working citizen has no way to enjoy once-public natural resources, and rich nonresidents don’t spend a dime where they might have to rub shoulders with local commoners.

If Montanans allow a few out-of-touch legislators to begin fencing them out of their own streams and rivers, or to slyly redefine stream access rights from “high water mark” to “surface waters” (read the proposed bills – they are already pulling that quick switch!), it won’t be long before Montana streams and rivers will be, like in so many parts of Colorado and California, “look but don’t touch – unless you’re rich.” The whole state will suffer for the benefit of a handful of rich and elite.

Republicans seem to believe that votes are a commodity to be bought with big money – money represented by a few wealthy landowners who want to brazenly steal Montana’s public resources. Rank-and-file Montanans, on the other hand, seem to understand that state legislators should represent the best interests of Montanans, and that those who do will earn votes one at a time. Montana’s Republican legislators should be reminded – by letter, phone call, and e-mail – that brazenly stealing from the public can turn a red state blue in a hurry.

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