If you live near one of the Gallatin Watershed's streams or rivers, you have an added responsibility to care for one of Montana' s most precious and limited resources. The surface waters of our state provide 98 percent of the water used for growing food and feeding livestock. Although areas adjacent to rivers and streams make up less than 5 percent of the landscape, they contain 75 percent of our state's plant and animal diversity. Moreover, activities closest to streams are more likely to have immediate effects on water quality. As stewards of the source waters for the Missouri River, we have an obligation to pass these waters on unimpaired to users downstream.
Riparian areas are the green areas adjacent to rivers and streams.
Healthy riparian areas usually contain a swath of lush growth of water-adapted plants. Healthy riparian areas are the key to maintaining healthy stream systems. In addition to the permits discussed, Gallatin County requires up to 100-foot setbacks from streams for residential or commercial construction for new subdivisions and other setbacks in some zoning districts in the county. In the Gallatin, where few dams exist to alter natural flows, spring runoff typically results in flooding of valley streams and rivers. Floods have regularly occurred in the Bozeman area since 1893, and major flood events have occurred at increasing intervals to the present.