Montanans for Healthy Rivers

Home
United States
Missoula, MT
Montanans for Healthy Rivers

A coalition of river lovers working to conserve MT’s rivers and way of life 🌊 Clean water and healthy rivers drive our economy.

It is no exaggeration to call rivers the lifeblood of Montana. They provide us with drinking water, irrigation water, water for industry, and boundless recreational opportunities. The history of Montana is the history of its rivers, and so will be its future. Rivers also are at the heart of Montana’s outdoor way of life. Our river corridors support a rich community of fish, birds and wildlife, more diverse and vibrant than any ecosystem in the state. Montana’s rivers are famous the world over for their thriving wild trout fisheries, their thrilling whitewater recreation, and their clean, clear water. Montana still has what the rest of the country wants – plentiful clean water and free-flowing streams. Montana’s rivers are critical to both our state’s prosperity and our unmatched way of life. Montanans know how to take care of our rivers, but they are facing unprecedented threats from out-of-state interests. Already, there are plans for hydropower projects, pipelines, and oil and gas drilling in some of our most treasured headwaters – development that, if done wrong, would forever harm anglers, boaters, irrigators and communities miles downstream. Montanans need to plan ahead for healthy rivers as we grow our economy and develop our natural resources. We do not want Montana to become like other arid, western states where many of their once-great rivers are piped and diverted out-of-state. Montanans for Healthy Rivers is a coalition of citizens, sportsmen, businesses and conservationists working to conserve the last, best free-flowing rivers in Montana – to keep Montana the way it is for future generations. We need your help and input to accomplish these goals. Visit our website: healthyriversMT.org

10/22/2026

A healthy river needs clean water - but clean water is not the whole story.

On October 18, 1972, the modern Clean Water Act became law, creating the basic framework for regulating pollutant discharges and establishing water-quality standards across the country.

Four years earlier, the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act created a different - and complementary - form of protection. It safeguards designated rivers’ free-flowing condition, water quality and outstanding natural, cultural or recreational values.

The difference matters.

A river can meet water-quality standards and still be dammed. A river can remain free-flowing and still face pollution. Neither law protects everything, but together they reflect a fuller understanding of what a living river needs.

Clean enough to sustain life. Free enough to remain a river.

📸 Chris LaBasco |

10/21/2026

When it comes to Wild & Scenic Rivers, “ORV” doesn’t mean off-road vehicle 🌊 it stands for Outstandingly Remarkable Value.

These are the special qualities that make a river nationally significant, from exceptional scenery and recreation to fish and wildlife habitat, geology, history, and cultural connections.

A river does not need to possess every ORV to qualify for Wild & Scenic designation. Just one outstanding value combined with free-flowing character and good water quality - can help make it worthy of lasting protection.

Because every river has a story. ORVs help us understand what makes that story truly remarkable.

10/15/2026

Imagine standing near Livingston and looking south - not into the open sweep of Paradise Valley, but across a reservoir.

That future was once possible.

In the 1970s, the proposed Allenspur Dam would have impounded approximately 33 miles of the Yellowstone River upstream from Livingston. Its construction would have fundamentally changed the river, inundated land and reshaped the ecology, economy and identity of Paradise Valley.

But Montanans came together across interests to ask a larger question: What would be lost if the Yellowstone no longer flowed freely?

Their work helped defeat the dam. Because they acted, the Yellowstone remains the longest undammed river in the Lower 48 making it one of Montana’s greatest conservation stories.

📹 Getty Images |

10/12/2026

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor the Indigenous peoples who have lived alongside and cared for these waters since time immemorial.

Montana’s rivers flow through the homelands of distinct Tribal Nations - each with its own history, culture, knowledge and enduring relationship with the land and water.

And long before the Western conservation movement, Indigenous peoples stewarded these waters through knowledge rooted in generations of observation, reciprocity and responsibility. That knowledge and leadership remain vital today.

We are deeply grateful to Montana’s Tribal Nations and to the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council for their leadership, stewardship and support for protecting free-flowing rivers.

Today and every day, we recognize that the future of Montana’s rivers must be shaped with respect for Tribal sovereignty, Indigenous knowledge and the generations who have cared for these waters long before us.

📸 Vital Ground of the Blackfeet Nation |

10/08/2026

The idea behind America’s strongest river-protection law was born right here in Montana.

In the 1950s, the proposed Spruce Park Dam threatened the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. Wildlife biologists John and Frank Craighead understood that a dam would affect far more than the river’s current - it would alter wildlife habitat, recreation, scenery and the character of the entire landscape.

In 1956, the brothers floated the Middle Fork to document what was at stake. The following year, John Craighead made the case for preserving some rivers because their wildness held value of its own.

That idea helped inspire the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System.

The Spruce Park Dam was never built. The Middle Fork still runs free. And a Montana river helped change how an entire nation thought about conservation.

Sometimes protecting a river begins by imagining its absence.

10/05/2026

𝗔 𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿. 𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲.

From aquatic life beneath the surface to the elk, eagles, otters and countless other species that depend on healthy river corridors, Montana’s rivers sustain entire ecosystems.

Wild & Scenic designation helps protect these habitats by preserving a river’s free-flowing character, supporting clean water and safeguarding the outstanding fish, wildlife, scenic and cultural values that make each river remarkable. It also helps maintain the natural connections between headwaters, floodplains, riparian areas and the landscapes downstream.

But healthy river habitat begins well beyond the riverbank. The Roadless Rule helps safeguard the undeveloped forests and headwaters that provide clean drinking water, connected habitat and refuge for wildlife across Montana.

𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀. Submit your comment and urge the USDA to keep the Roadless Rule in place.

📸 Pat Clayton |

https://canva.link/mhr-cta-roadless-rule?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6a8c68154ce3bf82993d4328

10/05/2026

Fun fact, Montana football fans 🏈 Griz and Bobcat fans might have more in common than you think.

If you’ve ever filled your water bottle from the tap while in Bozeman, you’ve likely had a little help from Montana’s roadless lands.

Sourdough and Hyalite Creeks supply much of Bozeman’s drinking water, and their mountain watersheds include protected roadless areas in the Gallatin Range. That’s a pretty important assist from the headwaters.

You can disagree about football. Clean drinking water should be an easy win.

The USDA is proposing to rescind the Roadless Rule, removing longstanding safeguards for undeveloped national forest lands that help protect our headwaters and downstream water supplies.

Tuesday, October 6, is the deadline to comment. Before the weekend wraps up, lend your voice to Montana’s roadless lands and the clean water they provide.

Submit your comment through the link and consider it a little teamwork for Montana. https://canva.link/duymtavddkioawm?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6ac000173723f7e91f3a9260

10/02/2026

Some anniversaries ask us to remember a date. Others ask us to remember a decision.

On October 2, 1968, the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act was signed into law - creating a national commitment to preserve select rivers in their free-flowing condition.

It was a remarkably forward-looking idea. At a time when dams were transforming rivers across the country, Americans decided that some rivers and the fish, wildlife, communities and ways of life they sustain were simply too valuable to lose.

Today, only about 0.2% of Montana’s river miles are protected under the Act.

Throughout October, we’ll be sharing the Montana stories behind this landmark law, the rivers that could have been lost and the choices still before us.

Welcome to Rivers Worth Remembering.

📸 USFWS |

Address

2505 Garfield
Missoula, MT
59801

Website

http://www.healthyriversMT.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Montanans for Healthy Rivers posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Montanans for Healthy Rivers:

Want your business to be the top-listed gym/sports facility in Missoula?

Montanans for Healthy Rivers

10/22/2026

10/21/2026

10/15/2026

10/12/2026

10/08/2026

10/05/2026

10/05/2026

10/02/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Listing takedown request