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Montana releases new protocol for calling instream flow rights

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Montana releases new protocol for calling instream flow rights


Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has applied a brand new protocol when making a “name” on water rights for instream stream — the protocol finalized a few 12 months after Gov. Greg Gianforte ordered the company to say no making a name on two rivers citing considerations on the method.

Water rights in Montana and throughout the West are prioritized by institution date, that means the earliest rights obtain larger precedence than more moderen ones. If water runs low, a senior proper holder might make a name on junior rights, that means juniors should cease diverting or mitigate water utilization to permit the senior proper its allotment.

Rights are tied to “helpful” makes use of, reminiscent of irrigation or mining. Instream stream to maintain water within the stream or river for fish or recreation can also be a authorized helpful use following work from the state and conservation teams.

Individuals are additionally studying…

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Quite a lot of state companies maintain rights for instream stream, with FWP’s instream stream rights geared towards conserving water for fish. Water left in streams, even at small scales, can profit fish habitat and connectivity, or in cold-water tributaries, present refuge from rising water temperatures. Importantly, instream stream might not register as an uptick in flows on downstream gauges, however might gradual the decline of flows or have localized advantages reminiscent of holding riffles moist to permit fish passage all through a stream.

FWP obtained instream stream rights by a wide range of processes, reminiscent of submitting underneath the 1973 Montana Water Use Act and so-called “Murphy Rights,” named for the sponsor of a 1969 regulation Rep. James E. Murphy.

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By way of precedence date, FWP’s water rights from the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties are typically junior to many rights in a basin, with some senior rights for irrigation or mining courting again to the flip of the final century. However FWP’s rights are senior to generally dozens of different rights for makes use of starting from agriculture to municipal water. Traditionally the company has made name on some junior rights amid low-flows, sometimes not making name on rights for consuming water or others decided to have minimal or no impression.

On Friday, FWP made its first two calls of 2022 on the Smith and Shields rivers, in keeping with Director Hank Worsech.

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Summer time 2021

Final summer time amid widespread drought and dwindling streamflows, FWP thought-about making name on a variety of streams and rivers, doing so on the Blackfoot which additionally has an lively drought plan and water person group.

The company additionally really useful making name on its 1970 Murphy Proper for the Smith and a separate 1978 proper for the Shields. Such calls weren’t unusual up to now, with the state making name on the Smith 11 instances and the Shields six instances within the final 20 years. The request was denied by Gianforte, who wrote in a memo that FWP had not proven the decision would produce measurable advantages and lacked a transparent course of for analyzing a name.

“Primarily based on the evaluation supplied by FWP and subsequent dialogue, it’s obvious {that a} name would offer questionable, if any, measurable profit to the sources in query. As such, I’m directing FWP to forgo a name for water on the Smith and Shields Rivers,” Gianforte wrote final 12 months.

As a substitute, the governor directed the company to develop a proper course of and in addition known as for FWP to interact native water customers to advertise drought mitigation and planning.

The choice drew confusion and disagreement with conservation teams but in addition a “wait-and-see” strategy to FWP’s new protocol.

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New protocol

Launched this week and posted to FWP’s web site, the brand new protocol used Friday formally captures a variety of processes that had been used traditionally to make a name, reminiscent of monitoring flows and contemplating which junior rights could be known as. The doc contains broad approaches to evaluation in addition to basin-specific decision-making parameters.

Invoice Schenk, lands program supervisor with FWP, was tasked with creating the protocol. He believes the doc meets the directive with a “sound methodology that takes into consideration the sensible impact of a name.”

A substantial portion of the protocol analyzes when and the place FWP will contemplate a name. The company is not going to, for instance, make calls on junior rights for home water provides or rights predicted to have nominal impacts on flows, reminiscent of livestock consuming from a stream. And it’ll not make a name ought to FWP decide different entities or plans could have a much bigger impression in responding to and mitigating low flows.

In some basins, organized watershed teams have developed localized drought plans which mandate reductions in allocation to maintain water in streams and rivers. In others, a court-appointed water commissioner already adjusts water allocations primarily based on precedence dates. In each instances, FWP’s protocol says it is not going to make a name or will solely make a name underneath restricted circumstances.

Schenk notes that not all watershed teams are the identical and whereas a basin might have a bunch, it might not have a written drought plan in place. Nonetheless, he agreed when requested that one consequence from protocol might be extra incentive for teams to type and take up drought planning.

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“The concept is to not defer to native watershed teams simply because they’re there, but when a neighborhood watershed group has taken the (drought) situation on, and has some demonstrated management or is transferring in that route, attempting to supply native options, then sure I believe there’s a desire to defer to that management on a neighborhood foundation, and thus it incentivizes that to some extent,” he stated.

One situation raised when FWP declined to make calls final summer time was the potential for an abandonment declare. Beneath water regulation, if a senior water proper doesn’t use any or a portion of their allocation for a sure interval, a junior person may file a declare of abandonment, which may cancel the senior proper. Whereas such claims are comparatively uncommon, Schenk believes the company could be insulated from such a declare if it doesn’t make a name in waters the place it holds a proper. He believes that when water is within the stream it qualifies as FWP exercising its instream stream proper, and that the water regulation does permit discretion on which junior customers to name.

As a way to make a name, the protocol states FWP subject workers might want to make a proper suggestion and reasoning to the FWP director. If authorised, letters will likely be despatched to junior customers topic to name and see of the decision will likely be posted on FWP’s Water Administration web page on the company’s web site.

Gianforte approves of the brand new course of, his workplace stated, writing in an e mail that, “The governor appreciates FWP bettering its water proper name course of so as to add transparency and predictability for Montanans.”

Response

FWP has labored on the protocol used for the primary time Friday during the last 12 months in an inner course of that stretched by the, till just lately, cool and moist summer time, though drought has endured in a lot of the state. 

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Teams reminiscent of Montana Trout Limitless have been wanting to see the brand new protocol, and Clayton Elliott, conservation and authorities affairs director with the group, stated he was glad to see the protocol launched and sees some constructive parts.

“The protocol has ample quantities of discretion for native biologists who cope with complicated circumstances and this has some discretion constructed wherein is a constructive factor for an on the bottom resolution,” he stated. “No attain inside a stream is similar and no stream will be in contrast apples to apples.”

Elliott stated Trout Limitless had earlier considerations about some parts of the governor’s directive reminiscent of language talking to measurable stream advantages. The brand new protocol appears to have addressed these considerations, acknowledging that calls might have vital advantages to fisheries that don’t present up on gauges miles downstream, he stated.

Elliott cautioned that whereas some watershed teams have successfully enacted drought plans, usually FWP’s instream stream rights play an essential function.

“It’s essential to understand how these rights function together with these plans,” he stated. “I believe it additionally calls all of us to activity to be on the desk with irrigators and different water customers to assist construct these plans.”

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Krista Lee Evans, a water rights advisor with the Affiliation of Gallatin Agricultural Irrigators, noticed positives within the protocol as properly.

“I believe having a proper written coverage is essential as a result of it helps present readability for different water customers,” she stated. “… FWP Murphy Rights are comparatively junior throughout the board, however they do serve a beneficial goal, however how and when and the place and what sorts of evaluations will likely be achieved, that’s what’s actually essential in regards to the protocol.”

Evans additionally noticed recognition of the function of water commissioners as piece of the protocol to have spelled out. And he or she believes having a proper course of permits for higher analyzing its effectiveness.

When requested about incentivizing watershed teams to pursue native plans, Evans additionally identified the array of teams, but in addition stated native irrigators reminiscent of within the Gallatin usually have casual agreements to maintain the river moist. Having a few of these plans in writing might be helpful, she stated, and FWP’s deference to native plans gives an enormous carrot to get that work achieved.

Final summer time and as just lately as this spring, a bunch of twenty-two retired biologists, together with some from FWP, despatched letters to the governor and FWP expressing concern over final 12 months’s resolution.

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Bruce Farling, former long-time director for Montana Trout Limitless, was among the many group speaking in regards to the resolution and reviewed the brand new protocol this week. Whereas the protocol is sweet on some points, he factors out that it requires extra purple tape to make a name. He additionally has broader considerations, believing it diminishes the worth of instream flows in comparison with different makes use of of water.

“They’ve created a double customary right here,” Farling stated. “It’s the identical water regulation, however FWP has to leap by different hoops that different water proper holders, business, doesn’t should undergo.”

Farling additionally says he’s troubled by what he believes is an emphasis on causes to not make calls relatively than emphasizing making requires the advantage of fish, which is the expressed authorized goal of FWP’s water rights.

Each Farling and Elliott additionally raised points in regards to the course of that has led to the brand new protocol. Farling stated the biologists’ letters didn’t obtain a response and data has been minimal.

“We have now two basic points: nothing on this doc tells us what was so damaged that we wanted this lengthy, multi-month course of, and simply the secrecy to supply this factor,” Farling stated. “The secrecy led to mistrust and it was completely pointless.”

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“It’s a reasonably first rate assortment of processes, most of which had been already current, however we do have some considerations about what the large secret is right here,” Elliot stated.

FWP spokesperson Greg Lemon defended FWP’s course of.

“To me, it’s clarified and defined an inner course of, so it’s not that we’re attempting to keep away from public enter, we had been attempting to satisfy the request at hand and develop a clear course of,” he stated. “We didn’t see it as one thing we wanted to undergo this expansive public course of — we now have the water rights, we now have instream stream rights, and the general public is anticipating us to have a course of in place.”

Each Lemon and Schenk stated that though there was no public course of tied to drafting the protocol, the doc is designed to be adaptable and the company would welcome feedback, reminiscent of info on basins.

Tom Kuglin is the deputy editor for the Lee Newspapers State Bureau. His protection focuses on open air, recreation and pure sources.

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Measles case identified in Cascade County

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Measles case identified in Cascade County


Public health officials in Cascade County said Wednesday they are investigating one case of measles in a local adult resident who spent time at a local business when they were likely contagious.

As of publication time, the county website listed several locations for public exposure, including the Great Falls Walmart at 5320 10th Ave. S, the Rib & Chop House at 21 Third St. N, and the Great Falls Clinic Walk-in at 3000 15th Ave. S.  Any individual who frequented those locations during the listed times “is considered to have been exposed to measles,” the website said.

The incident is the county’s first confirmed case of measles, a highly contagious and deadly disease that resurfaced in Montana this year for the first time in three decades amid a nationwide outbreak. 

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The state has reported 26 total cases since April across six counties: Gallatin, Flathead, Yellowstone, Lewis and Clark, Hill and now Cascade. Two people have been hospitalized for the disease and no deaths have been reported.

A person who has been exposed to measles can spread the virus four days before they develop a rash — one of the first physical signs of infection — and can remain contagious for several weeks. Symptoms may not appear for up to 21 days after exposure, giving a person’s transmissibility a long tail. 

A depiction of measles cases in Montana at a Gallatin County doctor’s office in early July, 2025. Credit: Amanda Eggert

Health experts in Montana and elsewhere in the U.S. have stressed that the best protection against the measles virus for adults and children is the MMR vaccine, a long-lasting immunization that is typically recommended for infants between 12 and 15 months of age. In some circumstances of community transmission, health officials in Montana have recommended an earlier vaccination schedule for young infants.

In a Wednesday press release, the Cascade City-County Health Department said the newly confirmed case is an adult who is reportedly vaccinated, but that their immunization history had not been confirmed.

The health department reiterated that vaccination or other forms of protection are critical for preventing illness. 

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“Individuals who are immune to measles through vaccination, laboratory evidence of immunity, laboratory confirmation of disease, or were born before 1957 are not considered at risk for infection. Individuals without prior measles infection or vaccination have a 90% likelihood of contracting the disease if exposed,” the release said.

If a person is not sure about their MMR vaccination status, the health department suggested requesting vaccination records from their former high schools, colleges, universities, doctor’s offices, pediatricians, or the health departments for the towns in which they grew up.

Montana is the only state in the nation that does not publicly share data about county-by-county vaccination levels, particularly among young children who are most at risk for adverse effects from measles. An existing data collection program was scrapped after the state legislators passed a law striking that language from code in 2021.

A recent federal survey of 127 Montana children born in 2021 put the state’s estimated measles vaccination rate among toddlers at 85.5%, one of the lowest figures in the country.



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Typical Montana home value up 66% in four years

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Typical Montana home value up 66% in four years


Montana’s typical home value has increased by two-thirds in four years, according to new valuations published this month by the Montana Department of Revenue.

The department estimates that the median residential property in Montana was worth $378,000 as of the beginning of last year. Four years previously, before the state housing market blew up during the COVID-19 pandemic, the median value was $228,000 — meaning values have increased 66%.

The department’s valuations, produced every other year for the purpose of calculating property tax bills, are a somewhat delayed look at Montana’s real estate market. The new figures represent the department’s effort to estimate market conditions as of Jan. 1, 2024. 

However, because state law keeps sale prices for individual properties private, the tax valuation data is one of the most comprehensive measures available for the Montana housing market at a time when housing affordability — and property tax bills — are major points of public concern.

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The valuations indicate that the potential market price for the median residential property statewide increased by 35% during the 2023 reappraisal cycle, which accounted for shifts between 2020 and 2022, and then by another 22% with this year’s cycle.

The increases tabulated by the department generally align with data from other sources. A Montana housing price index kept by real estate website Zillow, for example, estimates that the price of the typical Montana home rose by 61% between the start of 2020 and the start of 2024. Zillow’s typical home value estimates are higher than the state figures — $449,000 at the beginning of 2024 and $465,000 as of June.

Buying a median $228,000 home in 2020 with a 10% down payment and a mortgage at the then-average 3.5% interest rate would have required a housing payment of about $921 a month, excluding property taxes and insurance. Four years later, with that median home at $378,000 and interest rates at 6.6%, the monthly housing payment would be about $2,173 — 2.4 times as much.

In comparison, the per-capita personal income available to the average Montanan grew by 26% over the past four years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The average personal income as of 2024, $67,625, is enough for a $1,700-a-month housing payment if no more than 30% of income is put toward housing expenses.

Montana elected officials have responded to concerns about rising home prices by passing a number of laws intended to encourage housing construction, in some cases by limiting the power of cities and counties to restrict new development over concerns such as parking availability.

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On the property tax side, lawmakers also passed a major tax code rework this year that aims to address how higher values have translated to higher taxes for homeowners and long-term rental landlords, ultimately shifting much higher taxes to residential properties being used as second homes.

The most expensive home prices are generally in and around Montana’s fast-growing urban centers. Gallatin County, around Bozeman, has the state’s most expensive median home value, at $685,000, according to the state data. That’s a 77% increase in four years. 

Madison County (including both Ennis and portions of Big Sky) has the second-highest median value at $671,000, followed by Flathead County (Kalispell) at $578,000 and Missoula County at $507,000.

Southwest Montana counties that have historically had affordable housing markets saw the fastest value growth. The median values in three southwest Montana counties — Granite (Philipsburg), Deer Lodge (Anaconda) and Madison — have more than doubled in four years.

Flathead County also came close to the doubling threshold, with a 95% increase in prices bringing the county median to $578,000.

Additionally, many rural plains counties in north-central and eastern Montana have also seen hefty increases in excess of 30% or 40%, according to the state data.

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Fergus County, around Lewistown, for example, has seen its median home value increase by 82% in four years, to $242,000. Custer County, around Miles City, has seen a 44% increase, to $194,000.

During the first of the two COVID-era reappraisal cycles, growth was especially focused on western Montana. Some eastern Montana counties, such as Daniels (Scobey), Sheridan (Plentywood) and Roosevelt (Wolf Point) in the state’s northeast corner, actually posted modest value declines.

By the time numbers were tabulated for this year’s cycle, however, higher prices had come to eastern Montana. Daniels County, for example, shifted from an 8% decline to a 36% increase.

Additionally, 30%-plus growth sustained across both cycles in much of western Montana, particularly counties in the state’s northwest corner. Lincoln County, around Libby, for example, saw a 41% increase followed by a 31% one, bringing its median value up from $177,000 to $324,000.

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Texas man from Montana says community coming together during flood recovery and search

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Texas man from Montana says community coming together during flood recovery and search


A former Montana couple is back in the flood damaged community of Kerville, Texas. 

The Johnsons had been visiting relatives in Montana, where they lived for about 40 years, when the floods came through that area.

“There’s trees, debris. I have not seen any vehicles or anything yet,” John Johnson said about the devastation. “I’ve seen mattresses, tents. We have a concert on the river. The concert platform was on G Street, about a half mile down.”

Watch story about Kerville recovery and search here:

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Kerville, Texas man from Montana says community coming together during flood recovery and search

Johnson and his wife have lived in Kerville for six years.

He willingly spoke with MTN News but wants the attention to be on the recovery and the efforts of the search crews.

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“There’s over 2,000 first responders down here,” Johnson said. “Plus local people, local fire departments and all the different communities and stuff have been mobilized. My understanding is most of these guys have been going since the 4th, trying to help and find bodies and everything else. The community has stepped up big time.”

Many have put up crosses and flowers as memorials to the people lost in the flood.

And Gov. Greg Abbott has also seen those memorials.

“Governor Abbott did a really good job getting people down,” Johnson said. “Everybody I talked to said the state of Texas mobilized immediately. As soon as he found out, the helicopters are down here immediately.”

The governor and his wife visited Kerrville with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on Friday.

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“The first lady and I are here in Texas to express the love and support and the anguish of our entire nation,” said the president.

“As we rebuild, we must also comfort the families of those who have suffered a loss,” Abbott said in a news release.

Johnson has helped at the Catholic Church and worked with a tree cutter in nearby Hunt and Ingram, but the roads are too jammed for him to get to Camp Mystic, which is about 19 miles from Kerrville.

The search has been long and meticulous.

“It’s going take months,” Johnson said. “It’s going to take a long time.”

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“Our nation, we mourn for every single life that was swept away in the flood, and we pray for the families that are left behind,” said Trump. “It’s amazing the, the incredible spirit from those families.”





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