The following are excerpts from A History of Montana Trout Unlimited
By Bruce Farling
To read the complete article, click here.
The following article explains how George Grant TU began as the Rocky Mountain River Rats, and why we still honor those who have had so much influence on our conservation efforts and the stream access that makes our Montana lifestyle so unique to all other states. Please read this, and then come to our Banquet on March 11th to help us carry on our unique tradition of conservation and stream access.
The River Rat
“In the early 1970s a pivotal TU chapter emerged, largely because of another exceptional man. Like Dan Bailey, George Grant had amazing prescience for what matters to rivers and trout. And also like Bailey, he had an abiding love for a magnificent Montana river, the Big Hole. The Butte native had fished the Big Hole since the 1920s. When employment was scarce during the Great Depression, he moved into a little cabin on the river and spent days on end fishing. He acquired a keen eye for what affected the river and its fishery, which he later wrote featured very large rainbow trout and few brown trout until around 1950. In the 1960s he occasionally visited with Bailey. They talked about the dam fights, Allenspur and Reichle. They talked about TU. In 1972, Grant and a few friends started the Rocky Mountain River Rats, the Butte chapter of Trout Unlimited. He became chief writer and editor for the River Rat, the chapter newsletter. In its pages Grant left few stones unturned in his passionate defense of rivers and wild trout.”
and a few paragraphs later…
The Landmark Stream Access Victory
“In the late 1970s Grant began writing about another emerging issue. Land ownership along trout rivers was starting to change. Newcomers arrived who were less tolerant of the long -held Montana stream access traditions. Generally, any stream deemed navigable was assumed, for good legal reason, to be open to the public. Trying to head things off, Butte Representative Al Luebeck introduced the first stream access bill in the 1975 Legislature. It failed, but controversy over access continued to grow. In the late 1970s, no-trespassing signs appeared more frequently on public rivers. Eventually a landowner on the Beaverhead River and another on the Dearborn River constructed fences across channels to prevent floating. Stories emerged about hostile ranch employees kicking people off the streams.”
“Concerned anglers responded, creating the Coalition for Montana Stream Access. The chief actors were Butte –area River Rats, Tony Schoonen, Tom Bugni and Jerry Manley. Having observed another battle pitting the State of Montana and anglers against the Crow Tribe over who owned the bed of the Bighorn River, the Coalition knew their cause would not be easily advanced. The landowners went to court to keep the public off the rivers. Some agricultural organizations supported them. The TU – backed coalition employed the Goetz law firm of Bozeman to defend access. Articles appeared in Trout magazine telling TU members around the country how they could support the Coalition. Eventually, cases brought by Mike Curran on the Dearborn and Lowell Hildreth on the Beaverhead ended up in the Montana Supreme Court. In 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that the Montana Constitution deems that water capable of supporting recreation was the public’s to use, irrespective of who owned the banks and bed. The details were left to the Montana Legislature to figure out. The 1985 Legislature, with anglers and anti-access groups such as the Montana Stockgrowers Association compromising, came up with a middle-ground access law. The law was refined slightly by another case in the 1980s, but because of the foundation established by Schoonen, Bugni and the other River Rats it has survived all subsequent legal challenges and stood the test of time for 24 years.”
To read the complete article, click here.