Montana’s enlightened stream access laws have seemingly always been contested by livestock operations and now a wave of wealthy landowners.
Found via the excellent Fly Fishing in Yellowstone blog, we learned a judge recently affirmed the public’s right to access streams where they intersect public roads.
This court case was brought by much-disliked-by-fly-fishermen landowner James Kennedy (Atlanta resident and heir to a media fortune) after he blocked fishing access by attaching fences to bridges, and asserted that the public right of way narrows to the bridge itself where it intersects a waterway.
Fortunately, he’s not just an ass, he’s an ass with a losing legal argument:
A judge ruled this week that the public has the right to get to rivers from county bridges, but also determined landowners can attach fences to bridges in a split decision on a 4-year-old case out of Madison County.
District Judge Loren Tucker said in a case filed by the nonprofit Public Lands Access Association against Madison County that county road rights of way remain 60 feet wide across rivers. That means the public can use bridges to get to public waters under Montana’s stream access law.
James Kennedy, a Ruby Valley landowner and billionaire heir to a media fortune from Atlanta, Ga., an intervener in the case, and whose fences prompted the lawsuit, had argued that county rights of way narrow down to the actual bridge surface. He contended the land below the bridges was private property and therefore the public was trespassing when it crossed fences built up to a bridge.
Tucker soundly rejected that.
“His implicit argument is that a county road may not be utilized in the vicinity of water,” Tucker said. “That argument is unsupported by authority or by logic.” John Gibson, PLAA president, called the decision a major victory for Montanans.
A report from the Underground’s Special Envoy in Charge of Tiny Flies suggests big trout eating little Tricos in Montana, so cast away, Montana fly fishing public while you’re still legally allowed to.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Taku 10.06.08 at 7:20 pm
Thanks God for those souls who wrote the 1972 Montana Constitution. And for those who continue the fight to protect our access. Now for the local guide who used some rather unpleasant profanities towards my wife and I on the local float last Friday, I say it’s time to move to a state where you don’t have to deal with the “damn public” ruining his fishing.
Tom Chandler 10.07.08 at 12:43 pm
Taku: A “I do this for a living, so I’m entitled to the river” moment, eh?
Ray Pearson 10.28.08 at 10:05 am
The Public Land/Water Access Association (plwa.org) does much of the ‘heavy lifting’ when it comes to keeping Montana public land and water in public hands. Billionaire James Cox Kennedy has stated that he will spend his last dollar to overturn the Montana Stream Access Law. PLWA is a typically impoverished grassroots organization up against mega bucks but, with your support, we will prevail because we have right, and as a result of this case, the law, on our side.
bdotlea 11.03.08 at 8:33 am
Although the court decision is precedent setting for other bridges, this decision ONLY includes the 2 bridges in the case. Bernard
Tom Chandler 11.03.08 at 11:19 am
Ray: Thanks for the info. Those looking to support the Public Land/Water Access Association should visit their Web site: http://www.plwa.org/
Bernard: I’m not sure I get the distinction - if organizations have to mount a legal challenge against all the illegally fenced in waters (at bridges), I’d assume they’d carry the day.