Sportsman Group or Private Hunt Club

The following was read to the Ravalli County Fish and Wildlife Association's "Land Committee on Thursday 2/4/2010 by a club member trying to point out the double standard of demanding other private land owners allow access to public property (Hughes Creek & Mitchell Slough) while restricting access to public property (Bitterrrot River) themselves. With few notable exceptions the committee, which is composed of both RCFWA board and non-board members, reacted with outrage.

Apparently most felt it was acceptable to privatize the public surface waters of the Bitterroot River for a few elite members (most of whom are officers, committee or board members) by restricting the access on Crystal Lane. This website is an attempt to publish all available public records pertaining to Crystal Lane and to allow the public to comment on RCFWA's policy.


"MCA Title 23-2-3 (Recreational use of streams) guarantees the right to certain recreational opportunities on the surface waters of Montana’s streams and rivers without regard to ownership of the land underlying the waters. Our (RCFWA)objective as stated in our constitution in Article 2 Section 1(J) is “To promote and protect access to all public resources” . The RCFWA has repeatedly defended the rights for sportsmen and women against private landowners who restrict access to public land, water or wildlife in a desire to control it for their own personal use. Recently we (RCFWA)testified against these vary issues at the Mitchell slough hearings.

Access to the river bottom, through our property, affords our (RCFWA) members several miles of public recreational opportunities along the river corridor that are currently under-utilized. For the last year our club has regulated these public opportunities by mandating work requirements for eligibility and imposing a limited entry policy in regards to the public surface waters of the Bitterroot River.

We(RCFWA) have effectively denied recreational opportunities granted by the state (via stream access) to a high percentage of our members while granting them to an elite few as perks. By imposing any special requirements for access to the river bottom we are in effect controlling public property for personal use. Any and all active members of RCFWA in good standing should have access to the surface waters of the Bitterroot River, via the club property, without reservation or stipulations."