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This summer has been among the roughest in recent memory for many of western Montana’s rivers.

A handful of rivers, including beloved trout fisheries, reported some of the lowest July, August and September flows recorded in nearly a century of data collection. Rivers that reached or approached record lows include the Blackfoot, Bitterroot, Flathead, Clark Fork and Big Hole. Many continue to report record-low levels into October.

As I wrote this week, those low flows illustrate the increasing strain facing Montana’s legal framewor

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