12.11.215    NEW OUTFITTER MORATORIUM AND OUTFITTER RESTRICTIONS ON THE BEAVERHEAD RIVER

(1) An outfitter with documented use of the Beaverhead River prior to December 31, 1998, may continue to operate on the Beaverhead River, except as provided in (2).

(2) An outfitter authorized to outfit on the Beaverhead River forfeits all his/her client days and is no longer authorized to outfit on the Beaverhead River if one or more of the following occur:

(a) an outfitter does not report any use for any two consecutive years, effective June 17, 2005;

(b) an outfitter did not report any use for the five years prior to December 31, 2004; or

(c) the license of an outfitter has expired.

(3) The department shall establish a pool of temporary client days that consists of the forfeited client days. The total number of temporary client days, including client days that have been allocated client days available in the pool, shall not exceed 2,000. 

(4) An outfitter who has not documented use on the Beaverhead River prior to December 31, 1998, may not operate on the Beaverhead River unless the outfitter was licensed by the Board of Outfitters between December 1, 1998, and July 1, 1999, and the outfitter's operating plan included the Beaverhead River.

(5) Each outfitter from July 1 through August 31, inclusive, on the Beaverhead River shall not exceed the number of client days served by the outfitter on the Beaverhead River during those same months for the outfitter's highest client use year from among the years 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, or 2000. The records submitted by the outfitter to and maintained by the Board of Outfitters will determine the number of client days in each year.

(6) Client days may only be used by an outfitter authorized to conduct use on the Beaverhead River. An authorized outfitter may hire or contract a guide or outfitter serving as a guide to provide guiding services to clients provided the guide or outfitter serving as a guide only serves in the capacity of a guide and does not recruit clients, make agreements with clients concerning monetary consideration or services provided, or collect fees from clients.

(7) An outfitter may not sell, lease, rent, or otherwise receive compensation from an outfitter or guide for the opportunity to use client days.

(8) An outfitter found to be selling, leasing, renting, or transferring client days in any way other than when transferring a business in its entirety shall permanently forfeit these client days. The forfeited client days will be allocated to the temporary client day pool.

(9) An outfitter serving as a guide for an outfitter authorized to conduct use on the Beaverhead River must be the person providing the guiding services and may not hire a guide to provide the services on their behalf.

(10) In the event of the death of an outfitter who has an opportunity to outfit on the Beaverhead River as outlined in this subchapter, that opportunity may be assumed by a member of the immediate family of the deceased outfitter. This provision does not supercede the outfitter licensing requirements and authority of the Board of Outfitters.

(11) All outfitters given the opportunity to operate on the Beaverhead River, as outlined in this subchapter, will be issued boat tags that will identify them as authorized by the commission to operate on this river. These boat tags must be displayed on all authorized outfitter boats when operating on the Beaverhead River.

History: 87-1-301, 87-1-303, MCA; IMP, 87-1-303, MCA; NEW, 2003 MAR p. 759, Eff. 4/25/03; AMD, 2005 MAR p. 917, Eff. 6/17/05; AMD, 2010 MAR p. 1726, Eff. 7/30/10.