Chapter 5: Sensitive Areas in this Special Place - Riparian Areas

If you live near one of the Gallatin Watershed’s streams or rivers, you have an added responsibility to care for one of Montana’s most precious and limited resources. The surface waters of our state provide 98 percent of the water used for growing food and feeding livestock. Although areas adjacent to rivers and streams make up less than 5 percent of the landscape, they contain 75 percent of our state’s plant and animal diversity. Moreover, activities closest to streams are more likely to have immediate effects on water quality. As stewards of the source waters for the Missouri River, we have an obligation to pass these waters on unimpaired to users downstream.

Riparian areas are the green areas adjacent to rivers and streams. Healthy riparian areas usually contain a swath of lush growth of water-adapted plants. Healthy riparian areas are the key to maintaining healthy stream systems. Streamside vegetation helps stabilize streambanks (reducing siltation and streambank movement), helps slow water during peak flows, provides important breeding habitat and cover for wildlife, keeps water cooler in the summer for fisheries, prevents ice damage in winter, and traps and filters runoff that may contain sediment or pollutants from adjacent lands.

If you plan to engage in activities that might disturb the streambed or the adjacent riparian area, you may need permits from one or more agencies administering regulations to protect this sensitive and important area (see chart). In addition to the permits discussed, Gallatin County requires up to 100-foot setbacks from streams for residential or commercial construction for new subdivisions and other setbacks in some zoning districts in the county.

Healthy riparian areas have a lush growth of vegetation.

Information

Montana Riparian and Wetland Association, Montana Forest and Conservation Experiment Station, School of Forestry, University of Montana, Missoula
(406) 243-2050

Montana Association of Conservation Districts, A Guide to Stream Permitting in Montana, 501 N. Sanders, Helena, MT 59601
(406) 443-5711

Gallatin County Planning Office
582-3130

Resources:

NRCS - cost-share programs to create and enhance areas along streams in order to reduce stream-bank erosion
587-6929

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency, Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) - cost-share programs to improve and protect natural resources; Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) - rental payments and cost-share assistance to establish long-term, resource-conserving cover on eligible land
587-6926

MFWP, Future Fisheries Improvement Program - funds stream corridor improvements, including fencing and bank stabilization
(406) 444-2449

Gallatin Valley Land Trust - conservation easements for important biological and beneficial lands
587-8404

Montana Land Reliance - conservation easements
(406) 443-7027

The Nature Conservancy - conservation easements
(406) 443-0303

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