COMPONENT 4. RIVTilR CORRIDOR ilANAGEMZNT. 



Introduction and Project Description . 



The Conservation Districts Bureau of the Montana Department 

 of Natural Resources and Conservation proposes to organize a 

 grassroots level river corridor "coordinated resource management 

 planning (CRMP)" effort that will attempt to develop solutions to 

 critical water quality or quantity (dewatering) problems in 

 selected watersheds . 



The Conservation Districts Bureau will hire a natural resource 

 management /CRM professional to work half-time on river corridor 

 identification, group organization, and solution development. This 

 position would ce combined with the state's Rangeland Resource 

 Management Program coordinator within the Conservation Districts 

 Bureau to further develop the resource management and coordination 

 capabilities within the program. 



T 



The involvement of all elements of the affected public and 

 government resource management agencies will be necessary to 

 effectively address the water management problem and successfully 

 implement the solution. The CRMP effort will be spearheaded 

 through the local CDs . CDs have strong ties to local land users 

 and serve as local natural resource educators and problem solvers 

 in their communities . 



The project will be implemented through the state's Rangeland 

 Resource Program housed at CDB/DNRC. This program has successfully 

 promoted CRMP as an effective method to address natural resource 

 management issues throughout the state. The Conser^/ation Districts 

 Bureau receives range program activity guidance and direction from 

 the Governor's Rangeland Resource Executive Committee which is 

 comprised of citizen leaders interested in sound range management. 

 The range program also has nine advisors representing the Montana 

 Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Montana Department of 

 State Lands, the Montana Department of Agriculture, the Montana 

 Stockgrowers and Grazing Districts, Conservation Districts, the 

 Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Forest Service, the Soil Conservation 

 Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. 



