HELENA – The Montana Senate will debate a bill intended to clarify Montana’s law on public access to rivers and streams when the access point involves county roads and bridges.
The Senate Fish and Game Committee advanced House Bill 190 on a vote of 7-2 after amending it to address some concerns raised by landowners.
Rep. Kendall Van Dyk, D-Billings, said the bill he is sponsoring states that people may gain access to Montana waterways for recreation by using a public bridge, a right of way or abutment and a county road right of way.
“Montana’s hunters and anglers have been asking for this for years,” Van Dyk said after the committee supported the bill Thursday. “I can say with some level of confidence that the finish line is in sight.”
Debate on the Senate floor will take place in the coming days.
The bill seeks to end a dispute that erupted in 2000 when some landowners in Madison County attached fencing to county bridges. Sportsmen contended the fencing denied them their right to access to public waters.
An access bill failed in the 2007 legislative session. The legislation now pending was drafted partly on the basis of negotiations by groups representing sportsmen, ranchers, counties and others.
One amendment adopted Thursday says that except in cases of “willful or wanton misconduct,” an owner of land next to a bridge crossing cannot be held liable for someone using the road right of way for access to recreate on a river or stream.
Another amendment makes clear the bill neither creates rights nor “extinguishes” any existing rights involving easements that counties acquire without payment after years of traditional use. These are known as prescriptive easements.
Senate Fish and Game Committee Republicans Joe Balyeat of Bozeman and John Brendan of Scobey cast the two negative votes.