MT Rivers and Streams Need Room to Roam

Your future depends on clean water. Enjoyment of your new Montana home depends on the future health of Montana’s fish, wildlife, and natural areas.

Montana’s fastest growth is in rural places near rivers, lakes, and forests.

Today, people like you want to live near water, and areas nearest to Montana’s rivers, streams, and lakes are among the most popular rural development sites in Montana.

Rivers, streams, and wetlands makeup less than five percent of Montana's landscape, yet contain 75 percent of the state's plant and animal diversity.

Long-time Montanans and newcomers alike are attracted to the state's unspoiled outdoor recreation opportunities.  
 
Most agree that’s worth protecting.
It makes sense to protect the natural values that you want to enjoy as you consider your new home site.

Stream setbacks offer you an intelligent solution that protects your water, your privacy, your budget, and the natural landscapes that harbor the fish and wildlife everyone enjoys.

Setbacks reduce flooding
Stream setbacks reduce property damage and downstream flooding because streams overflow onto their natural floodplains.

Setbacks reduce pollution
Vegetation within stream setbacks filters and traps pollutants, and helps to maintain Montana’s water quality.

Setbacks reduce stream bank erosion
Vegetated stream setbacks protect against erosion by slowing runoff and stabilizing stream banks.

Bank erosion, flooding, introduction of pollutants, and loss of critical habitat are all effects caused by building too closely to water's edge.
 
Setbacks protect fish and wildlife habitats
Stream setbacks provide habitats for Montana’s fish and wildlife. Setbacks protect fish and wildlife cover and provide shade that cools the water.

Setbacks provide economic benefits
Stream setbacks increase property values and provide economic benefits by reducing the need to combat flooding, repair eroding stream banks, and replace damaged property.

Setbacks provide recreation benefits and privacy
Montana's stream access law offers everyone the ability to enjoy Montana's waterways. Stream setbacks provide homeowners privacy from anglers and floaters while protecting our traditional relationship with Montana's natural resources that makes Montana such an attractive place to live, work, visit, and play.

What can you do?

Remember, stream setbacks provide you with personal assets that are economical, efficient, and sustainable.

• Build on higher ground, outside of the floodplain, and back from streams and wetlands.
• Leave streamside and wetland areas intact.
• Never dig, cut native vegetation, or build within 300 feet of streamside or wetland areas.
• Storm water rapidly runs off hard surfaces, so keep things like driveways, concrete patios, and rooftops to a minimum and direct runoff away from riparian and wetland areas.
• Install septic systems outside riparian areas and the flood plain.
• Join your local watershed group or contact Montana’s Watershed Coordination Council.
• Don’t apply fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides near a stream, lake, or wetland.
• Ask your county commissioners to adopt rules and regulations that preserve, protect, and restore streamside areas.
• Provide stream setback education and outreach programs and materials to your neighbors, your builder, your real estate agent, and others.
• If you already live near a stream or river, consider improving your property with native landscaping to provide a buffer between your home and the stream.

• MT Rivers and Streams Need Room to Roam