One of the great things about
living in Montana is state law allowing public access to any
stream, no matter whose monster home lies alongside it. But just a
weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Montana Trout Unlimited that
said the national group wanted to back away from involvement in any
dispute — and there are many — over stream access with property
owners. The national group noted “donor
dissatisfaction” as a major reason for the move. Or in other
words: Stop making the deep pockets angry.
Stream Access
became a hot-button issue in Montana more than two decades ago,
when a grassroots coalition that included many Trout Unlimited
members initiated a court challenge against two landowners who
blocked steam access with fences and bully tactics. The coalition
won in 1984, with the state Supreme Court basing its decision on
the Montana Constitution and the Public Trust Doctrine. In its
ruling the court said, “All water capable of recreational use
could be so used regardless of streambed ownership.” A 1985
law codified stream access as a public right to use state waters
within the ordinary high water mark. Since 1985, however, a steady
trickle of landowners has challenged that law.
Not
surprisingly, in a state that reveres fishing wherever a river runs
through, the proposed hands-off policy from National Trout
Unlimited set off a powder keg. E-mail comments from local members
included the sentiments “public access is the ‘holy
grail’ here in Montana,” and, “If TU pushes this
proposal, I’m cutting up my membership card.” Several
national board members of Trout Unlimited also opposed the proposed
gag order, and more than one person suggested that the policy
reflected the national group’s wealthy donors, some of whom
want to privatize waterways and bar the hoi polloi from their
stream sides.
The class-warfare argument might just hold
water. James Cox Kennedy, an owner of the Cox chain of newspapers
and other media, of Atlanta, Ga., owns the 3,200-acre Trailsend
Ranch in Montana’s Madison County, which is crossed by the
Ruby River. Kennedy’s efforts to block public access to the river
began in 2003, when he began stringing electric fences and erecting
other impassable barriers at two county bridges on public roads
that run through his ranch.
Barely a week after national
Trout Unlimited floated its hands-off resolution, Kennedy filed
suit against Madison County and the Public Lands-Water Access
Association Inc. Kennedy claimed the county failed to stop the
public from accessing the river at the bridges, thus violating his
property rights. The timing aroused suspicion that Trout
Unlimited’s proposed resolution was meant to appeal to
Kennedy, who might then be inclined to contribute some of his
considerable wealth to the organization. Several conservationists
have made this charge, but none will be quoted by name. What is on
the record is a letter Kennedy wrote in 2005 to the University of
Montana to explain why his Cox Foundation would not donate money
for a new journalism building.
Kennedy wrote, “As you may
know, many Montana residents are making it known that they are not
happy with non-resident landowners in their state. In addition,
stream and river access issues are also being raised. Until these
issues are resolved and our presence in the state is more
appreciated, we have decided not to make any further contributions
in Montana.”
In Montana, the controversy over national
Trout Unlimited’s resolution, which was meant to apply to
every chapter and every state council, quickly focused on what
Montana Trout Unlimited would do. It, I am happy to say, opposed
the resolution, arguing that, “stream access is critically
important to the ongoing effectiveness of TU.” It also
expressed a thanks-but-no-thanks response to a suggestion that
stream-access activism could be funded through unaffiliated groups.
Calling this a recipe for disaster, Montana Trout Unlimited argued
that it would be both false and foolish for its members to work
behind the scenes.
What turned into a grassroots revolt
has apparently left the national board of Trout Unlimited reeling,
because it recently rescinded its proposed resolution on what it
called an “inherently divisive” issue. As Bob Teufel,
acting chair of national Trout Unlimited, told a reporter, “I
got 182 emails from our friends in Montana. … None of them
included an offer to go fishing.”
Pat
Munday is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of
High Country News (hcn.org). He teaches at a
small engineering and science college in Butte,
Montana.
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