April 15, 2025
Hey Y’All,
My old friend Utah Phillips, the Golden Voice of the Great Southwest, says “It is proverbial among cattle ranchers that if you control the water, you control the range. If you want someone else’s water, all you can do is buy it, kill the owner, or marry his daughter.” As often as not, it was the middle option—kill the owner—that settled things. One of Utah’s best songs is called Dog Canyon—Canyon Del Perro. It's about the range wars in the Tularosa mountains of New Mexico in the 1890s. Here’s a verse:
“Way up in Dog Canyon Old Frenchie holds out,
Half-blind and crippled but he never knows drouth;
He has the good water. Tell me what would you do
If you had to protect it from Billy McNew?”
In the Old West, the water wars were waged with guns on the open range. These days they are fought with pens and laptops in commission chambers, legislative hearings and court rooms. The 69th Session of the Montana Legislature is no exception. In the midst of all the other debates, quite a fight over water has been, and is, taking place. And, the fight over water is part of the larger debate over land use planning, population growth in the state, agriculture, climate change and the future of Montana.
We’re going to learn a lot about it this week at Hometown Helena. The topic is Montana's Water. Our guests will be staff from the Upper Missouri Waterkeeper: including John Tubbs, former Director of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and Hometown’s own Matt Elsaesser, new Deputy Director for the Upper Missouri Waterkeeper.
Matt and John have spent the session working on water issues. Two important areas of concern are the Gallatin River and the impact Big Sky is having on that water; and the backstory of Horse Creek Hills decision regarding a proposed subdivision on the east shore of Canyon Ferry Reservoir in Broadwater county and how is has shaped water use and the bills in this legislature. Both of these developments are within the Upper Missouri basin.
Please plan to join us Thursday at Helena College to learn more about this from two gentlemen working on this very important issue. Or Zoom into the discussion from the comfort of your home, courtesy of Aja Rail and her colleagues at Pinion Global, Inc. You’ll learn a lot, and be better informed at 8am than you were at 7am this week.
Jim Smith
406-949-1002
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