This is the inside story of a decade-long legal battle against a covey of millionaires and billionaires to stop the gutting to stop the gutting of Montana’s Stream Access Law and the removal of almost every stream and river in the state from environmental protection under the Montana Natural Streambed and Land Preservation Act of 1975.
The Mitchell Slough, originally known as the Right Fork of the St. Mary’s Fork of the Bitterroot River, is a 16-mile-long spring-fed stretch of the Bitterroot River that meanders from just north of Corvallis to just south of Stevensville. In the early-90’s two young men, who had fished the waters of the Mitchell all their lives, decided to test Montana’s Stream Access Law by fishing in this area that had been closed to the public by landowners who put up barbed wire and “No Trespassing” signs along its banks.
Newspaper publisher Howell got involved when the two men came to him and asked for some publicity about the issue. Howell wrote some articles about an incident in which the two were cited for trespassing and later acquitted and that is the beginning of a fascinating saga of the struggle to save Montana’s rivers and streams from privatization. The fight involved numerous legal complexities that were ably sorted out and addressed masterfully by the late Jack Tuholske, the legendary environmental Montana attorney to whom the book is dedicated.
“No one else could have told this story with as much clarity, accuracy and insightful nuance as Michael Howell has done,” writes Greg Pape in the Introduction. “If the news is a rough draft of history, then Michael’s work over the years as a reporter has helped produce that rough draft. But Saving the Mitchell is not a rough draft. It is a clarification, a well-written and well-vetted true story, a book that will take its place among the significant books of Montana history and literature. It is also a reminder of the vigilance that is necessary to good citizenship.”
The poetry of Greg Pape, a former Poet Laureate of Montana, is sprinkled throughout the 145-page book, which also contains a number of photos, maps and other related material. The book retails for $19.95.
“If you want to buy a big ranch and you want to have a river and you want privacy, don’t buy in Montana. The rivers belong to the people of Montana.”
Governor Brian Schweitzer
New York Times by Tom Robbins July 26, 2006