Every summer, as snowmelt dwindles and temperatures climb, Montana’s rivers shrink and warm, threatening the state’s prized coldwater fisheries. Drought conditions in the state are currently better than in much of the arid West, but healthy rivers cannot depend on luck with the weather. More than 4,500 miles of Montana streams are chronically or periodically dewatered, and hotter, drier summers will increasingly strain a $1.5 billion industry and the communities that depend on it.
Fortunately, Montana is well-equipped to respond to the challenge. Senate Bill 178 (SB178), which allows expedited short-term water leasing, made headlines during last year's legislative session, and again earlier this year when Crazy Mountain Ranch controversially used it to lease its own water right to itself to irrigate a golf course. Since then, discussion of the law has largely faded, but the bill’s conservation potential remains.
SB178 allows water rights holders to lease their rights temporarily to new beneficial uses, including instream flows, through a much simpler process than a full change application, which can take years to process. Unlike a permanent transfer, a temporary lease allows water rights holders to retain ownership of their water rights, with full control returning to the owner when the lease expires. That flexibility makes participation far less risky than traditional transfer methods and creates a streamlined route for short-term, voluntary transactions that put water where it creates the greatest value.
Conservationists measure that value in colder streams and healthier trout populations during the hottest weeks of summer. Leasing water to stay instream during seasonal streamflow shortages could mean a healthy tributary to support spawning fish or water temperatures below hoot owl thresholds. And because a lease application under SB178 moves much faster than a traditional change application, a lease can take effect when it matters most instead of stalling in review.
Across the West, voluntary water leasing demonstrates that well-designed markets can improve streamflows while respecting private property rights. In Oregon, the Deschutes River Conservancy has restored hundreds of cubic feet per second to the Deschutes River and its tributaries by paying willing water users to temporarily leave their water instream. Colorado has a robust state program that has similarly brought life back to depleted coldwater fisheries through voluntary transactions, including 29 miles of the Gunnison River. Montana is well positioned to add itself to the list of water leasing success stories.
Modern technology makes SB178 an especially exciting conservation opportunity by reducing the cost and uncertainty of environmental water leasing. TroutCast, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, Montana State University, and Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, can identify stream reaches where coldwater fisheries are most vulnerable to warming temperatures and declining flows, helping pinpoint where leases would do the most good. Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation maintains a robust Water Rights Query System that makes it easier than ever to identify candidate water rights for leasing. Stream gauges and diversion measurement tools—required under SB178 leases—can verify that leased water is truly staying instream. Finally, advances in satellite-based evapotranspiration measurements can help conservation organizations identify active irrigation, estimate historical consumptive use, and prioritize outreach to willing water users.
Montana now has both the legal framework and the technical tools needed to make voluntary environmental water leasing succeed. What remains is putting those tools to work. Conservation organizations, fly fishing outfitters, landowners, and philanthropic partners should begin identifying priority stream reaches, building relationships with willing irrigators, and developing pilot leasing projects that demonstrate what SB178 can accomplish. The Property and Environment Research Center’s recently released Montana Water Reforms report digs deeper into the policy tools needed to make that happen.
We can’t control the weather. But Montanans can capitalize on this opportunity and keep the Treasure State’s treasured rivers cold, connected, and flowing all summer long.
Conner Harwood is a research associate at the Property and Environment Research Center and author of Modernizing Montana Water Policy: A practical reform agenda for unlocking Montana’s water markets.
