This sounds like a really good idea. Note that the proposed study includes the three forks of the Flathead River, as well as the main stem as far as Flathead Lake . . .

Rep. David Bedey was born and raised in Hamilton, and he used to fish the Bitterroot River, but it’s so busy he doesn’t anymore.

“Now I go to the Clark Fork or somewhere else where I don’t have to play bumper cars with folks,” said Bedey, a Hamilton Republican.

Bedey made the comments Wednesday in the House Appropriations Committee in support of river use data that would be collected through House Bill 762, sponsored by Rep. Joshua Seckinger, D-Bozeman.

The “river census” bill, which preliminarily passed 67-32 in the House one day earlier, would require Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to produce a report of all watercraft on 16 river stretches in the summer totaling 966 miles in the state.

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