Wayne writing over at Will Fish for Work put up a very informative post last night about the latest skid steer produced gravel shuffling over on the Bitterroot around the Mitchell Slough neighborhood. 
He’d done a bit of metaphorical digging himself (well done, by the way), and while there’s no doubt a ‘rest of the story’ to come, he offered up some very pertinent information gleaned from a conservationist with significant expertise in the area. Here’s part of his post ‘More on channel manipulation on the Bitterroot’.
The post by False Casts and Flat Tires on the apparent channel manipulation is nothing new to the river (or some other Montana rivers), it has been going on for years. It seems that creating diversions or channeling for the purpose of irrigation is in line with state laws pertaining to the use of water for that purpose. Local soil and conservation districts and sometimes the Army Corp of Engineers are responsible for the permitting and oversight of whatever process is necessary in the issuance of the permits. Fish, Wildlife and Parks are involved in the process only to the point of making recommendations. It is however, up to the soil and conservation district to make the final decision to allow a permit regardless of FWP recommendations. Each local soil and conservation district is allowed to determine the fate of a permit based on their own bias. So, if your district relies on heavy use of irrigation then it’s possible that permits deemed necessary for irrigating may get more favorable treatment than say, a steady year round flow of water to preserve a healthy aquatic river or stream habitat. I had no idea the soil and conservation district had so much in common with the supreme court.
There are water rights in the area (Mitchell Slough) that are no doubt being exercised and more than likely some kind of permit is in place (or should be) that allows the holders of those rights to divert the water by any means allowed by state law. Apparently there are three types of water rights pertaining to Mitchell slough; irrigation (probably not this time of year), stock water, and fish and wildlife.
Wayne goes on to hit on something that we’ve been thinking for some time, particularly after the issues that erupted with regard to potential access restrictions proposed in last year’s Montana legislature.
We wholeheartedly agree that ‘we’ need to be paying more attention. Wayne put it this way-
One thing for sure is that we need to be paying closer attention to our stake in water resource and stream access issues. It’s not a good thing to have situations like this pop up “after the fact”. We would be better served by heading them off before they even get started, keeping up on what our local soil and conservation districts are doing, monitoring Army Corp 404 permits, keeping tabs on legislative issues etc. In other words, being proactive and taking action.
From where we sit, that’s right on the money. The question of the day then just might be who is ‘we’?
And that’s a damn good question. Some will argue that there are plenty of organizations in place to keep an eye on river things – TU, the Montana Stream Access Coalition, the Public Land / Water Access Association are some of the suggestions we hear bandied about routinely. And they’re fine groups that do good works on budgets stretched tighter than my dress jeans after Thanksgiving dinner, staffed by a surprisingly compact group of passionate volunteers. Some of these groups target fairly specific issues, like access, a prime interest here under the Big Sky if you haven’t noticed already.
Wayne and I have been chatting a bit about this via email, and while it hasn’t been said in exactly these terms, we both agree that the ‘we’ needs to be a bigger team, actively monitoring (ie, local Soil and Conservation Districts) and heading some of these kinds of changes off at the pass.
Unquestionably the frustration being expressed across a couple of beers at the pub needs to be aired, but it also needs to drive more boots-on-the-ground, cooperative, rational river and stream management. It can be done.
More to come.
