Livestock Overgrazing Riparian Areas. Riparian areas are those lands adjacent to running or standing water. Seventy to eighty percent of all wildlife species are dependent on healthy riparian areas for all or part of their life cycles. Healthy riparian areas prevent steep gradient streams from down cutting lowering water tables. Healthy riparian vegetation removes silt, fertilizer, pesticides and other pollutants from our water supply.
Riparian areas are the thin green lines of life in the semiarid West.
Montana is losing riparian areas at an ever-increasing rate. State and Federal officials charged with protecting your water supply and wildlife seem powerless to stop this destructive practice on private lands. If we are to have a sustainable ranching industry in Montana immediate action must be taken. Photo above shows dramatic down cutting of a stream bed. A hundred years ago this was a narrow, deep, cold trout stream flanked by willows and cottonwoods .