Senate Bill 354 is Threatening Montana's Public Access

 We Must Act NOW to Safeguard Access Across Montana

 

Senate Bill 354 has been crafted specifically to hit public access where it hurts most. PLWA, counties across Montana, and the general public has relied for decades on prescriptive easements which allow for public traffic to hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands and waters. One of our most famous cases, Seyler Lane on the Ruby River, was taken to court using this very principle, and led to the Bridge Access Law.

Anyone who has used a public road bridge to access rivers or streams for recreation in Montana has benefited both from prescriptive easements and from our ability to take these cases to court. So much gained, yet now, we stand to lose both avenues with the passage of SB 354.

The original amendments for SB 354 suffered setbacks due to Jim Goetz' powerful and apt analysis of their pitfalls and illegality. However, a short 24 hours before arriving at the free conference, new amendments were added without consultation with the public or access experts. This bill, as it stands, strongly favors wealthy, often out of state landowners who wish to close off access, and also takes away the rights of individuals, organizations, and even county commissioners to challenge illegal closures of prescriptive easements. It also has the ability to do several other dangerous things:

  • The bill creates a new bureaucratic process that allows for closure and posting of easements. After five years they may then be declared permanently closed without public input, changing the current process and very definition of easement access.

  • SB 354 is also bad for landowners. It has the ability to create serious obstacles for federal agencies such as the BLM and National Forest in the acquisition of easements to public lands, taking away current avenues open to them and possibly forcing these government entities entities to begin utilizing imminent domain if landowners do not wish to provide easements through their properties.

  • The bill's unintended consequences mean that any historically used county roads that are maintained and used by the government and understood to be public, but not officially registered as easements, can be permanently lost even to local county use if not registered before the end of 2022. Because these cases are often not recognized until a new landowner moves to the area and posts it, this creates the potential for enormous future losses of public access affecting not only the general public, but also local governments.

  • SB 354 is written to favor those wishing to limit public access, almost entirely placing out of reach any public participation in the process of creating easements or challenging illegal closures.

Please reach out to your legislators today and let them know that SB354 is bad for Montanans, bad for our economy, and not in line with campaign promises. SB 354 is now heading to the full House and Senate for final approval. It must be stopped if access to Montana's public lands and waters is to be protected. We have gained too much to lose these important access rights.

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

  • Forward this message to everyone who uses Montana public lands and waters and values public access.

  • Reach out to your legislators and tell them to Vote No on SB 354! You can find your legislator by clicking here and e-mail them by clicking here.

    • Alternatively, you can call 406-444-4800 and leave a message.

  • Explore our website and read about Prescriptive Access, Resolved Issues that have benefitted from it, and this current Legislative Session.

Read Tuesday’s Helena Independent article on the bill with comments from MWF’s Nick Gevock here.

Thank you for supporting access to your public lands and waters.

At PLWA - Access Is Everything.