Private bridges must benefit public

By Roberta Stauffer - 09/27/2008

Yes, this is a free country, and property owners should be free to develop their land — within the guidelines established by society as a whole.

But when a river runs through it, everything changes. Rivers belong to us all. And they're very special places.

Granted, rivers must be crossed at times to get to the other side, but our predecessors here in southwest Montana have already made the big decisions there. They figured out long ago where to put bridges across the Big Hole River, and for decades those bridges were deemed wholly adequate to meet access needs.

Only in recent times has there been increased pressure from new landowners to build more bridges — private bridges — across this scenic blue ribbon trout stream. Such proposals have been met with broad-based public outcry, as well they should be.

The Big Hole is truly one of Montana's treasures, largely because so much of its beautiful valley floor and canyon lands have managed to escape heavy-handed development. Farms and ranches along its banks have been in the same families for generations. Legions of anglers and floaters come from near and far to enjoy the peace of these timeless surroundings.

Once lost, the unspoiled character of the Big Hole may never be recovered, so it's incumbent upon the public and upon local and state governments to "hold the rope" here and ensure this treasure is preserved to the greatest extent possible.

To their credit, planning officials in the four counties along the Big Hole's banks — Silver Bow, Deer Lodge, Beaverhead and Madison — collaborated in recent years on uniform setback provisions for new development, to ensure that no more structures are built within 150 feet of the river's usual high water mark.

That was a hugely important step, and now may be the time for another one: a uniform private bridge policy. Butte-Silver Bow codified a bridge policy in 2005 after deciding that floodplain regulations alone were not enough of a tool to guide decision-making on private bridges.

They'd gone through two test cases. Pete Kamperschroer's first request for a bridge outside Wise River was denied a floodplain permit in early 2002 primarily for safety reasons. A bridge support in the river could have posed a hazard to floaters.

Later that same year, a free-span bridge was approved for the Meriwether Ranch subdivision near Melrose largely because there were no safety issues and developers met all the floodplain permit requirements.

Immediately after that approval, then-chief executive Judy Jacobson called for establishing a broad-based task force to develop a private bridge policy. Ranchers, river guides, developers, conservation and sportsmen's groups and others all sat down with county officials, and the result was a new ordinance to guide decision-making on private bridges over the Big Hole and Silver Bow Creek.

Kamperschroer's latest request — this time to install a free-span bridge — is the first to be considered under this new ordinance, and another private bridge request is pending before Beaverhead and Anaconda-Deer Lodge County officials. It's quite a ways upstream, near the Mill Creek Highway junction with Montana Highway 43.

At first glance, it doesn't appear that Kamperschroer's proposal will satisfy all the minimum standards under Butte-Silver Bow's new policy. "Support for existing agricultural operations" is No. 1 on the list of criteria, and he doesn't even own any cows.

The policy also stipulates that private bridges shall not adversely affect wildlife or wildlife habitat, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks biologist Vanna Boccadori is already on record with concerns. Kamperschroer's proposed bridge would be near a major migration corridor for big game animals.

In a letter to conservation district officials, state fisheries biologist Jim Olsen has also expressed concern over the upstream bridge by La Marche Creek, contending it could alter the natural flow of the river and disturb the fishery.

We'll be closely watching both these cases and believe the onus is on the landowners to demonstrate how society at large stands to benefit in any way from these bridges that would cross this beautiful river which belongs to us all.

If they come up empty, the requests should be denied.

Petitions around town Tony Schoonen, a director with the Public Lands/Water Access Association, has launched a petition drive against these new private bridge proposals for the Big Hole River. Petitions are available for signing at Bob Ward and Sons, 1925 Dewey, and Fran Johnson's Sports Shop, 1957 Harrison.

He'll submit the names to both county and state officials, since the state must also grant easements for private bridges.