Legislative Report (cont) 



SEARCH FOR EFFECTIVE 

 ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE 



HB 180 - Abolishing the State 

 Conservation Commission has 

 passed. The MACD understandably 

 was against this bill. 



SB 444 - Water Use Act, to pro- 

 vide for administration and 

 central recording of water 

 rights , has been amended to pro- 

 vide for district court admini- 

 stration. This bill is contro- 

 versial, but has general support 

 that Montana needs good records 

 of water rights to document as 

 against future uses of water 

 by downstream users and others. 



SB 405 - Forest Practices Act 

 has been carried over to 1974. 



SB 401 - An act to amend Conser- 

 vation Districts Law to provide 

 for accelerated sediment control 

 has been carried over to 1974. 

 This will provide for standards 

 and mandatory controls to comply 

 with National Water Quality Act. 



HB 341 - SB 208 - Are related 

 Acts to provide for adoption 

 and enforcement of subdivision 

 rules by counties in accordance 

 with standards. Present effort 

 is to combine HB 341 with SB 20 8. 

 HB 341 resulted from a resolu- 

 tion of MACD to provide better 

 planning for and control of hap- 

 hazard land developments in 

 rural areas. 



HB 2 75 - To require membership 

 of a Conservation District super- 

 visor on county planning boards. 

 This bill is a result of an MACD 

 resolution to assure liaison 

 between CD land use planning and 

 county land use planning, to 

 avoid duplication, etc. This 

 bill seems assured of passage. 



President Slattery has assigned 

 the "SEEK" proposal followup to 

 Bob Anderson and Ray Fenton. 

 They report the following: After 

 a careful evaluation of funding 

 probabilities, time, and ex- 

 pense involved in preparing a 

 new grant application, state 

 board meeting difficulties, etc, 

 it has been decided that the SEEK 

 application should be reduced to 

 a county level as more or less 

 a pilot project grant for this 

 year. This makes grant prepara- 

 tion much simpler, and of course 

 brings the dollar request more 

 in line with the grants approved 

 in recent years. 



Cascade County CD is preparing 

 the application at this time, 

 and hopefully we can get off the 

 ground with this approach. 



Treasure Acres will be publish- 

 ed by the MACD, with 0. M. Ueland, 

 Chief of the Conservation Dis- 

 tricts Division in Helena as 

 Editor. As usual, a host of 

 problems have arisen but they 

 are gradually being worked out, 

 and we are moving forward. 



Legislative Report (Cont) 



HJR 35 - A Proposal for Montana 

 Land Use Policy has passed the 

 House. This Proposal is a result 

 of MACD resolution. 



Bills dealing with environmental 

 protection, mined land reclama- 

 tion, weather modification, wild 

 and scenic rivers, streambanks, 

 agriculture land assessments, 

 and many others have been of 

 concern to districts. 



