PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MOUNTAIN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION JOINS LAWSUIT TO DEFEND MONTANA FAMILIES
LAKEWOOD, Colo. (August 11, 2026) — Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) has joined a federal lawsuit to defend Montana ranching families whose long-established water rights and livelihoods are being threatened by a lawsuit alleging their historic irrigation practices could harm the threatened bull trout.
In Save the Bull Trout and Alliance for the Wild Rockies v. U.S. Department of the Interior and West Side Ditch Company, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, Helena Division, two radical anti-use organizations are seeking to hold the West Side Ditch Company liable under the Endangered Species Act based on the possibility that its water diversions could affect bull trout habitat.
Yet the lawsuit does not identify a single bull trout that the West Side Ditch has injured or killed. Instead, the plaintiffs’ claims rely on the possibility of future harm and alleged impacts to habitat. The nearest identified bull trout sighting was more than 30 miles from the farming operations.
The West Side Ditch has supplied water to family farms and ranches near Deer Lodge, Montana, for generations. Families rely on the ditch to irrigate pasture, grow hay, and feed livestock through Montana’s harsh winters. For these small operations, reliable access to water is essential to keeping their ranches in business and passing them on to the next generation.
“For generations, these families have relied on the West Side Ditch to raise livestock, grow hay, and make a living from the land. The Endangered Species Act should not be used to shut down lawful, historic use of property based on speculation about what might happen to a fish no one has shown was actually harmed by the land use,” said MSLF Director of the Center for American Prosperity & Energy Kole Kelley. “If environmental groups want to impose that kind of burden on working families, they should have to prove their case with evidence, not possibilities.”
MSLF is joining the case because allowing speculation to replace evidence could put far more than one Montana irrigation ditch at risk. If speculation alone is enough to create liability, the same theory could threaten farmers, ranchers, property owners, energy producers, miners, timber workers, and communities across the country that depend on responsible use of natural resources.
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Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) is a nonprofit, public-interest legal firm established in 1977. MSLF is dedicated to individual liberty, limited and ethical government, and the benefits of the free enterprise system. MSLF defends its clients through pro bono litigation and seeks victory for its clients at the highest level possible to establish binding legal precedents to benefit millions of Americans. Through its litigation and public discourse, MSLF educates the American public on the threat unrestrained government presents to our liberties. Learn more at mslegal.org
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