Change in the Wind for Montana Stream Access?

A well-written opinion piece in New West magazine decries the recent attacks on public access to Montana streams. Montana House bills 424 and 642, K. Durham believes, promise more turnover of once-public fishing to private hands, using, in part, a sleight of hand that would give access only to “surface waters” instead of the traditional “high-water mark” that has long enable anglers to reach waters deemed public.