Great news for stream access

There have been two important developments on the stream access front in Montana in the last six months. First, the Montana Supreme Court ruled unanimously last November that the landowners who had kicked the public off a section of the Bitterroot River known as Mitchell Slough were in obvious violation of the Stream Access Law. Secondly, Gov. Brian Schweitzer yesterday signed House Bill 190 which ensures access to rivers from the bridge crossings of public roadways.

Many were slow to realize the importance of the Mitchell Slough case, which the Supremes made clear in their strongly worded opinion (authored by a conservative appointee of Judy Martz no less) was a direct assault on the SAL. Fortunately, a ragtag band of Bitterrooters led by the likes of Sen. Jim Shockley, newspaper publisher Michael Howell and former Justice of the Peace Ed Sperry, took on the wealthy landowners who for 15 years successfully denied Montanans their right to access a Montana river between the high-water marks. Eventually Trout Unlimited and the established angling community came on board, but if it hadn't been for the efforts of the Bitterroot River Protection Association, the "No Trespassing" signs would still be up.

Another access-focused organization — the Public Land/Water Access Association — led the battle to ensure the public's right to use a public right of way to access rivers and streams. Remarkably, landowners on the Ruby River argued that a public right of way narrows from 60 feet down to the width of the river when it became convienent for access deniers. The Montana Attorney General shot down that "logic" in an opinion authored in 2000. But it wasn't until this legislative session that a bill codifying what is really just common sense finally made it out of the legislature to be signed by the governor.

Hopefully, the events of the past year will serve as a wake-up call to some of the mainstream organizations which sat on the sidelines for too long, especially in the Mitchell Slough case. Access has become the most important issue for hunting and angling conservationists in Montana and much of the West. It is our central front in the battle to conserve and protect the open spaces where we play and commune with the natural world. Some have argued that conservation is a value that is somehow independent from access. We here at www.mthookandbullet.com find this line of thinking delusional. If the public is denied access, the public's dedication to conservation will crumble. Organizations such as national Trout Unlimited that want to argue they are conservation organizations, not access organizations, are facing a jump-the-shark moment. Stick with that delusion and you'll lose all credibility in the hunting/angling community.

Even though we won these two rounds you can bet the access deniers will be back. When the original Stream Access Law was passed few would have thought someone would have the audacity to go ahead and post "No Trespassing" signs on a major Montana river such as the Bitterroot. Yet that's exactly what happened, and it stood for more than a decade soley because the access deniers had the money to tie up the issue in the courts. Don't fool yourself into believing these recent victories are the final chapter in the saga of the SAL. I'm confident that as I write this, someone, somewhere in Montana with money to burn is planning the next outrage to our state's constitution.

I just hope that next time we're all on the right side from the get-go.