Whiskey Ditch Please - a Guest Blogger

Thanks to BDoc for this, it is really very good.

I’ve always been sensitive to rants and raves about “out-of-staters” coming to Montana. It’s a pretty common discussion overheard around Montana; about how they come with their out-of-state attitudes and try to change it into a “better place.” About how they drive up the cost of property when they come from other more expensive places and build a spread of which even God might be envious. I get sensitive when I hear someone talk about how they are trying to make this into another Colorado or worse, another California. I might even stick up for “them” if I’m really feeling empathetic. I understand why they’d want to uproot themselves and move to Montana. Besides, I did just that 8 years ago.

But now it’s become personal.

The Mitchell Slough has been fished and floated for decades, possibly over 100 years if these old-timers were still alive and could tell us about it. Maps as old as 130 years show the same stretch of water as the Mitchell Slough. The 13-mile stretch is a willow-lined, meandering channel with at least 13 cfs of water in it year-round. Residents from long ago talk about fishing it as children with their Fathers and then as Fathers themselves with their own children and then as Grandfathers with their grandchildren. It’s always been a part of the Bitterroot River and therefore, because of the Stream Access Law, the public can fish and float there and should always be able to fish there as long as there is water to float and fish to catch.

But that might be no longer….

A group of wealthy, and I mean WEALTHY, landowners moved in some 20 years ago and started calling it a ditch. You might recognize some of the names – Huey Lewis, Charles Schwab, Ken Seibel (yes, the same family as the Meth Project founder) and some other Las Vegas casino tycoon, among others. And with them, came the attitude that the Mitchell Slough “had potential to be something great.” SOMETHING GREAT???!?!?!?! Wasn’t it already something great???? They saw the potential to turn it into something REALLY great. Because, you know, it’s not good enough that the fishery is thriving and the land is natural and unadulterated. Instead, they saw great potential for a stream that could meander under their glass-bottomed living room. They saw great potential for a tributary to their hot tub. They even saw great potential for their private fishery that could exclude the riff-raff, like you and me, from fishing and wading there by CALLING IT A DITCH. You tell me – how many of you want your “ditch” to meander under your glass-bottomed living room? OR better yet, how many of you want your own private fishing DITCH?

And so the fight ensued. The Bitterroot River Protective Association and the Montana Dept. of Fish, Wildlife and Parks partnered up to fight the characterization of a stream that has been in existence as early as 1865 as a ditch in order to make it private. We ended up in trial for a week last summer.

And the Judge sided with the landowners and called it a ditch. Have you seen this thing? It’s no more a ditch than the Missouri River. And the implications of it are far-reaching and threatening to our whole Montana way of life. The basic take-home message from the decision is that if a landowner manipulates a stream by putting in a headgate and moving some dirt and planting some trees to “restore the stream” (that was already good enough for Montana’s sake but apparently not good enough for the out-of-staters), it becomes a ditch at some point and the public can be excluded from using it. For those of you that don’t already know it, irrigators can and commonly do use a waterway for conveying irrigation water. And even more, they COMMONLY manipulate a stream or river to make it easier for them to get water to their headgates. I would challenge any person to show me a river or stream that hasn’t been manipulated… Before this case, that didn’t make it a ditch. Apparently this one Judge has made it his aim to change years and years of precedent in Montana.

So, welcome to Montana where we fish, float and recreate on our ditches – The Missouri Ditch, the Bitterroot Ditch, the Yellowstone Ditch. That’s what we have to look forward to if we don’t succeed in the end.

I think we’re going camping this weekend on the only truly public waters in Montana – the alpine lakes and streams where you’d have to backpack in to enjoy them. So much for public access.

This fight will be decided by the MT Supreme Court ultimately. I’m dreaming of the Final Decision in that case: Dear Assface Landowners, Go back where you belong. We don’t have room enough in these wide-open spaces for the likes of you. We’re happy without your “improvements.” If you want it to be like Colorado or California, then go to Colorado or California and leave us alone. Love, The Supremes.

In the meantime, bash the out-of-staters with that attitude all you want. I won’t stick up for them and I won’t even cringe. And then, when we can finally celebrate putting this issue to bed, let’s go float the Mitchell Slough … I’ll let you know when the time comes.