Don’t Buy Fish Tales on Bridge Access

Montana’s outdoor heritage is one of the things that makes our state the Last Best Place. While other states have squandered what they once had, we still treasure our big skies, abundant wildlife, and world-class fisheries.

I represent an urban district in north-central Billings, and I was born and raised on a ranch near Three Forks, Montana. I understand private property rights. I understand Montana’s stream access laws. I appreciate enjoying our Montana outdoors. Most importantly, I understand how we ought to treat our neighbors in Montana.

Every farmer, rancher, landowner, sportsman, and Montanan deserves clarity on stream access issues in Montana. Senate Bill 78, a bill to clarify stream access from public county bridges, provided that clarity, allowing landowners to build improved fences and affirming the right of the public to access rivers and streams from county bridges.

Montana is changing. Our heritage is constantly under assault from wealthy, out-of-state, trophy homeowners. Many of these folks are eager to buy up as much riverfront as they can, while closing off public waterways for their own personal hunting and fishing reserve.

Our state constitution guarantees our right to access our public rivers and streams, and to hunt and fish.

I was pleased to see Senate Bill 78 receive bipartisan support in the Senate last month. My email inbox and desk on the House floor has been flooded with pro-access messages for more than a month now, so I was shocked when the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee Republicans, including two Billings lawmakers, amended the bill to gut it and actually make existing access laws weaker.

When the anti-access members of the committee passed the amendments, I was forced to table what had become an anti-access bill. Later, House Democrats moved to bring the original version of the bill to the House floor for debate. Again, I was disappointed to see all 50 Republicans vote against consideration of the access bill.

When I went door-to-door last year, I found that Democrats and Republicans alike support access. I fear all sportsmen back home, whether Democrat or Republican, are not getting a fair shake here in Helena.

Knowing the public support for access, the anti-access members of the committee have proposed an “interim study” in an effort to cover their tracks for voting against access. Stream access laws have been on the books for 22 years. Rather than asking the voters to open their wallets and pay for a study, I ask voters to contact their legislators and tell them how you feel about access from bridges. I ask my colleagues on the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee to tell their voters how they feel about stream access. We don’t need another 2 years of legislative study for an issue we’ve addressed for 22 years. We don’t need the courts to decide access laws in Montana. What we need is an up or down vote on access. We need an up or down vote on access.

Democratic committee members in addition to myself who live in Billings—Representatives Robyn Driscoll, Gary Branae, and Arlene Becker—continue to stand in unison behind protecting access to Montana’s outdoor heritage and we will fight the political trickery. We will protect your right to access your rivers and streams.