Under normal circumstances, a person can survive without air for about 4-6 minutes. That’s roughly twice as long as a wild trout can survive without water. And the water that trout need to survive and thrive must be cold and clean. That’s why MTU’s top priority at the Montana Legislature is good water policy, just as our on-the-ground projects across the state focus on improving streamflows and building high-quality habitat. Our staff show up for trout in Helena, not only during the legislative session, but also throughout the off-season to build proactive solutions addressing the threats to our fisheries and our waterways.
Legislation dealing with water rights and water quantity in Montana attracts ample attention, as it should. The 2025 legislative session in Helena has been no exception. Fortunately for wild trout there are several promising bills moving through the legislature that were developed collaboratively and move the needle on long-standing challenges for our fish. Within the growing chorus of voices and views on water policy in Montana, it is important we accurately describe what these proposed laws would accomplish.
Two of these pieces of legislation will help address the troubling patterns in streamflows and water temperatures over the past few decades that anglers and river users statewide can no longer ignore. Drought and diminishing instream flow are the biggest threats facing trout in many of Montana’s coldwater fisheries. House Bill 256 would create a trust account to improve water storage, so that we can capture more water in the spring and discharge cold water in late summer when fish need it. In places where water storage facilities exist, such as the Painted Rocks Reservoir in the Bitterroot watershed, we have successfully negotiated using some of the stored water to improve flows during late summer and early fall. These late-season pulses of clean, cold water protect trout populations during critical conditions. Now awaiting executive action in House Appropriations, HB256 – “Creation of Montana water trust and special revenue accounts” – is a crucial step forward in addressing increasing water scarcity in Montana and will soon move to the Senate if unamended.
If passed, this bill will create a trust account for water storage using general fund dollars, with the interest from this trust dedicated to two distinct purposes. First, 90 percent of the interest will be directed to state-owned water storage facilities, providing vital maintenance or improvements for projects like Painted Rocks. Second, the remaining ten percent of the trust’s interest will support the Department of Natural Resource and Conservation’s (DNRC) well-established Reclamation Development Grant Program (RDG) to fund natural water storage projects like beaver dam analogs, wetland development, and floodplain restoration. Trout Unlimited and local watershed groups often partner with local governments on RDG program grants to improve stream habitat and flows. The RDG program specifically prohibits these funds from going to private entities. In short, HB256 will be a boost to public infrastructure and nature-based solutions to provide benefits for fish populations, anglers and communities statewide.
MTU also strongly supports SB358 – “Revise exempt water rights law” – to tighten regulations around a loophole in the Montana Water Use Act that has allowed developers to use increasing amounts of ‘free’ water without a water right, to the detriment of the public, senior water users, and aquatic ecosystems. Addressing the exempt wells loophole has been a top priority of MTU and water policy experts for over a decade. We joined with DNRC, the Montana Association of Conservation Districts, the League of Cities and Towns and various agricultural groups in testifying before for the Senate Natural Resources Committee on the science and benefits of better regulating exemptions to Montana’s water rights laws. Anglers and ranchers alike know that there simply is not enough water to go around already, and SB358 aims to reduce water use that falls outside of and threatens established water rights, including FWP’s instream flow rights. The bill prohibits new exempt wells in five of Montana’s fastest growing and most threatened watersheds – the Gallatin, Helena, Missoula, Flathead, and Bitterroot valleys. Hydrologic studies show that continuing to allow more and more exempt wells in these areas will severely drain groundwater supplies that are directly connected to surface water. If nothing is done to plug this loophole, communities, rivers and trout in these watersheds will suffer.
SB358 also requires further study of other watersheds to determine if the use of exempt wells should be curtailed, while allowing exempt wells to continue being used in places where the science shows they are not impacting streamflows or senior water right holders. Most of the opponents to his bill are a starkly divided mix of people who think it is either too strict or too lenient. That contrast is very good evidence of a hard-fought compromise that improves upon the status quo and has the hallmark of being durable.
As the cliché goes, ‘fish need water.’ Trout, in particular, need cold, clean water to survive and thrive in Montana’s changing rivers. We will continue to fight for those needs every day during the 2025 legislative session and throughout the year.
