Bozeman Magazine

Bozeman attorney Jim Goetz will present "The waters belong to everyone: the Montana stream access cases" at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 22, 2022, in Cruzado Auditorium (306 Romney Hall) on the MSU campus. The event is part of the MSU Library Trout Lecture Series and is free and open to the public. The evening includes a post-event reception. Goetz is a Bozeman attorney who was instrumental in passing Montana’s Stream Access Law, which protects public recreational use of Montana’s rivers and streams. His talk will provide an historical overview of navigability issues in Montana and outline the development of the seminal stream access cases on the Dearborn and Beaverhead Rivers. He will also share boyhood tales of fishing on the Madison and in the Tobacco Root mountains. Goetz grew up in Ennis. He graduated from MSU with a B.A. in history in 1965 and from Yale Law School in 1968. He founded his Bozeman law firm in 1972. The firm is consistently rated as a “highly recommended” law firm in Benchmark Litigation. In addition, Goetz has represented organizations working to preserve and maintain access on the Jocko, Kootenai and Yellowstone rivers. Goetz is the recipient of the Resources Defense Award by the National Wildlife Federation, the Conservationist of the Year award by the Montana Environmental Information Center, and the Legends of the Headwaters award by the Madison-Gallatin chapter of Trout Unlimited. Additionally, he is one of the founding members of the Bozeman and Montana chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and recently was a recipient of Montana’s Jeanette Rankin Civil Liberties Award. Through the annual Trout Lecture, the library strives to speak to all aspects of trout and salmonids and to represent the diversity of angling culture. Thanks to contributions from generous donors, this event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and pre-registration is encouraged. Guests can register online at https://www.montana.edu/calendar/event.html?id=42477 or by calling (406) 994-6857. For information on the MSU Library’s Trout and Salmonid Collection, visit lib.montana.edu/trout/.