2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 23. Parks, Recreation, Sports, and Gambling › Chapter 2. Recreation › Part 3. Recreational Use of Streams › 23-2-301. Definitions

23-2-301. Definitions.
For purposes of this part, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Barrier" means an artificial obstruction located in or over a water body, restricting passage on or through the water, that totally or effectively obstructs the recreational use of the surface water at the time of use. A barrier may include but is not limited to a bridge or fence or any other artificial obstacle to the natural flow of water.
(2) "Class I waters" means surface waters, other than lakes, that:
(a) lie within the officially recorded federal government survey meander lines of the waters;
(b) flow over lands that have been judicially determined to be owned by the state by reason of application of the federal navigability test for state streambed ownership;
(c) are or have been capable of supporting the following commercial activities: log floating, transportation of furs and skins, shipping, commercial guiding using multiperson watercraft, public transportation, or the transportation of merchandise, as these activities have been defined by published judicial opinion as of April 19, 1985; or
(d) are or have been capable of supporting commercial activity within the meaning of the federal navigability test for state streambed ownership.
(3) "Class II waters" means all surface waters that are not class I waters, except lakes.
(4) "Commission" means the fish and wildlife commission provided for in 2-15-3402.
(5) "Department" means the department of fish, wildlife, and parks provided for in 2-15-3401.
(6) "Diverted away from a natural water body" means a diversion of surface water through a constructed water conveyance system, including but not limited to:
(a) an irrigation or drainage canal or ditch;
(b) an industrial, municipal, or domestic water system, excluding the lake, stream, or reservoir from which the system obtains water;
(c) a flood control channel; or
(d) a hydropower inlet and discharge facility.
(7) "Lake" means a body of water where the surface water is retained by either natural or artificial means and the natural flow of water is substantially impeded.
(8) "Occupied dwelling" means a building used for a human dwelling at least once a year.
(9) "Ordinary high-water mark" means the line that water impresses on land by covering it for sufficient periods to cause physical characteristics that distinguish the area below the line from the area above it. Characteristics of the area below the line include, when appropriate, but are not limited to deprivation of the soil of substantially all terrestrial vegetation and destruction of its agricultural vegetative value. A flood plain adjacent to surface waters is not considered to lie within the surface waters' high-water marks.
(10) "Recreational use" means with respect to surface waters: fishing, hunting, swimming, floating in small craft or other flotation devices, boating in motorized craft unless otherwise prohibited or regulated by law, or craft propelled by oar or paddle, other water-related pleasure activities, and related unavoidable or incidental uses.
(11) "Supervisors" means the board of supervisors of a soil conservation district, the directors of a grazing district, or the board of county commissioners if a request pursuant to 23-2-311(3)(b) is not within the boundaries of a conservation district or if the request is refused by the board of supervisors of a soil conservation district or the directors of a grazing district.
(12) "Surface water" means, for the purpose of determining the public's access for recreational use, a natural water body, its bed, and its banks up to the ordinary high-water mark.
History: En. Sec. 1, Ch. 429, L. 1985, and Sec. 1, Ch. 556, L. 1985; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 28, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 360, Ch. 56, L. 2009; amd. Sec. 15, Ch. 235, L. 2013.