State Officials Say Montana Rivers Becoming More Crowded

Montana’s rivers are becoming more crowded, and the outfitting industry thinks it’s being unfairly targeted by regulations as outdoor recreation becomes more popular nationwide.

The Montana Environmental Quality Committee met on Wednesday morning, April 1, to discuss the state’s waters, with essentially unanimous agreement they are in trouble. Dropping fish populations, high usage of rivers and worrisome algae blooms were all given panel time as the committee looks to come up with recommended legislation for the 2027 session.

“In my five decades in the state, the attachment and use of our rivers has grown and continues to grow,” said Rep. Tom France, D-Missoula. “And as we look at the challenges facing our rivers, they’re almost less about the rivers themselves and how we interact and how we use those rivers.”

Outdoor recreation contributes about $3.8 billion into Montana’s economy, with fishing and boating accounting for about $149 million of that. Increased aquatic recreation interest has been an economic boom for the boat industry in the years since the pandemic, which has correlated with a rise in outdoor recreation.

But outfitters say they are around 20 percent of the users of the rivers, Scott Vollmer, with the Montana Outfitters and Guide Association said during a public comment.

“If social issues or the resource warrants changes in river recreation management across our state, it needs to be a shared burden of conservation across all user groups,” Vollmer said. “If you only regulate one, all the other groups are just going to fill in, and we will end up with actually more.”

Mike Bias with the Fishing Outfitters Association of Montana, and a panelist, said licensed guides are regulated and abide by specific rules, saying, “We’re not the problem, we’re part of the problem.”

“Everybody with a flatbrimmed hat and a cool boat, and a Toyota Tacoma is a guide, right?” Bias said. “You look at the Madison River, a lot of cool boats, a lot of cool dudes. They’re all guides? That’s not the case.”

There’s also fewer guides on the river, said Seckinger, who is a fly-fishing guide. Licensed guides are required to have special stickers on their boats.

“According to the Department of Labor industry, there are 1,500 less guides in the state than there were at the end of 2025 right now,” Seckinger said. “We went from 3,500 to 2,000 so this, these continual attempts to regulate this billion dollar industry in the state, seem kind of short sighted.”

Floaters, kayakers and paddleboarders have also increased usage of the rivers, with warm days in the summer seeing thousands of floaters getting on the river. This has led to a rise in conflicts between different users, panelists said.

This includes packed parking lots, difficulty by larger boats navigating certain stretches of waterways and heavily used fishing access points. But data on river users is an issue, Charlie Sperry, an outfitter and former FWP employee said, adding that citizen advisory boards across the state are not being heard when state agencies make rules.

Additionally, at least some respondents to surveys by state and local governments have said they enjoyed being on the rivers — but many of them are new users, Randy Arnold, the Department of Lands, Culture and Recreation Director with Missoula County said, with surveys targeted towards long-term Montanans showing some no longer spend time on the rivers they did in years prior.

“When you go to ask the folks who are fishing there whether they like it, you weren’t talking to the folks who had historically been fishing there,” Arnold told the panel.

Rep. Paul Fielder, who leads the committee, suggested on Wednesday river closure days may be needed, with “prescriptive treatments,” with an example being taking outfitters off a river for a day also discussed.

The state also has specific streamflow levels that dictate whether or not certain rivers are open for fishing.

Multiple factors are also impacting aquatic life, including warmer temperatures, less oxygen in the water itself at certain times of the day and algae blooms. Fish need cold water in order to thrive and concerns about snowpack this winter in certain areas of the state had some members of the committee concerned.

The Big Hole River and the larger Jefferson River Basin has been a major source of contention, which has seen worrying trends of low fish populations and miles-long algae blooms.

“We do not have the luxury of waiting a decade to do iterative studies,” said Guy Alsentzer, the executive director of Upper Missouri Waterkeeper and a panelist on Wednesday. “In fact, what both citizen science and the agency science is pointing out is that we need to be taking action now that there is a level of urgency to come up with meaningful solutions, to implement those that actually measurably move the needle for waterway protection and improvement, and if the consequences are also very real, if we don’t.”