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 . The grass that once supported livestock is gone forever along with the willows, cottonwoods and fish. The photo above shows what was once a lush aspen grove. Aspens, willows and cottonwoods regenerate from suckers coming up from the roots. Decades of grazing removes the young shoots each and every spring.