East Gallatin
Watershed Trust
Mitigating conflicts between neighborhoods and watercourses—for the benefit of both.
Mitigating conflicts between neighborhoods and watercourses—for the benefit of both.
Bozeman, Montana was founded as part of an 1860s gold rush in the western United States, as a key point of passage along The Bloody Bozeman Trail. While supporting miners seeking fortunes further west, Bozeman began harnessing the Gallatin Valley’s potential as a regional center for cattle ranching and irrigated agriculture. Treaties were violated as fertile Native-American hunting grounds were rapidly displaced.
Bozeman’s early settlers were no doubt industrious, but they were not thinking long term when they platted the town right up to the banks of Bozeman Creek, a main tributary to the East Gallatin River. The entire watershed was a key resource to Bozeman's early success, including considerable usage and re-routing for irrigation, grist mills, and even keeping beer cold. We live with that legacy today: Human infrastructure is at significant risk of economic loss from flooding, while residents and visitors alike miss out on the recreational and spiritual benefits of riparian corridors that have been largely channelized.
Bordering The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the south, the Gallatin Valley has recently seen a new gold rush of residential and commercial development. Thus, we are faced with the difficult and complex problem of "re-balancing" our development patterns along the East Gallatin River and its tributaries, while at the same time experiencing immense pressure to develop every remaining square foot of land in the face of luxury interests and ever diminishing housing affordability.
The mission of East Gallatin Watershed Trust (or EGWT, pronounced "EGG-wit") is twofold:
Reduce today's conflicts between property owners and the watercourses of the East Gallatin Watershed.
Eliminate tomorrow's conflicts, wherever feasible, through longer term reclamation of mis-developed East Gallatin Watershed courses.
Of primary importance to EGWT's mission is to meet landowners, neighbors, and other stakeholders where they are at, rather than preaching idealistically to them about "allowable" usage.
Today's honest discussions become tomorrow's watercourse conflict resolution.
We not only seek to secure the enjoyment of the natural beauty of the rivers, creeks, and ditches that run through our neighborhoods, but also to make our neighborhoods resilient to nature's ebbs and flows, which history has shown to range from unforgiving floodwaters to withering droughts.
EGWT is formally launching in early 2026, which happens to be timed alongside public engagement in the City of Bozeman's Bozeman Creek Vision Plan. While we plan to be a major contributor to that effort, we also plan to use 2026 to determine how best to meet our dual goals of near-term watercourse-conflict mitigation and long-term watercourse reclamation. This will likely include property-owner outreach and the development of a riparian land trust model, as well as establishing EGWT as a nonprofit with a governance structure.