Montana asserts its water rights to protect fisheries, recreation on several major rivers
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is asserting the water rights it holds in 10 Montana rivers to keep more water in cold-water fisheries facing low flows wrought by this winter’s meager snowpack.
FWP water rights and instream flow specialist Stephen Begley told Montana Free Press that the department has used its fishery- and recreation-oriented water rights to bolster flows in the Blackfoot, Missouri, Jefferson, Boulder, Beaverhead, Smith, Shields, Tobacco and Gallatin rivers. The agency also this week decided to enforce a water right it holds for a Kootenai River tributary — Young Creek — and is evaluating whether a similar call is merited on Rock Creek, a popular trout fishery that flows into the Clark Fork River.
Most of the water rights FWP holds to protect popular Montana fisheries are dubbed “Murphy Rights.” They are named after the state lawmaker who sponsored a bill in 1969 seeking to protect the water supply critical to fish in a dozen of the state’s blue-ribbon rivers.
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