water

The new law makes water rights permanent and provides certainty for agriculture, recreation, and other water users throughout Montana.

As drought and the summer heat causes streams to dwindle, water will once again be released from Silver Lake to bolster Warm Springs Creek and the upper Clark Fork River.

After a warm, dry spring and early summer that hammered the winter snowpack, Montana’s rivers are already showing signs of stress with two months of summer to go.

The bill will allow farmers to exchange land and water rights with urban developers to decrease water use and increase affordable housing.

Under the terms of a settlement agreement, there could soon be new federal protections for the Chinook, the largest of all Pacific salmon.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee said changes are coming to his proposed public land sale, which is currently facing a roadblock after the Senate Parliamentarian rejected it Monday evening.

Michael Garrity writes, "We have millions of cattle in Montana, but there are very few bull trout left, especially in their historic spawning areas of the Upper Clark Fork River."

After the U.S. Department of Interior failed to uphold its part of a legal settlement, two organizations have renewed their lawsuit to try to save bull trout in the upper Clark Fork River.

Conservationists demand that the state reevaluate the physical and legal availability of water taken by subdivisions from the San Pedro Riparian Conservation Area.

Corey Ellis writes, "Our delegation can claim they defended Montana public lands while selling millions of acres elsewhere."