River Access Rights: Montana and Texas Examples

Your river-access check involves separate questions about ownership, use of the water and its bed, and the route onto it. Montana’s statutes distinguish recreational use from title to the land; Texas’s article 5414a of Vernon’s Civil Statutes, enacted in 1929, preserves public and state rights in stream waters when granting certain interests in riverbeds.¹²³

This guide explains those distinctions through two examples: Montana and Texas. It does not determine whether a particular river, stretch or bank is open to you. These examples are not a nationwide survey or a typical set of state rules.

This page summarizes published safety guidance. It is not a substitute for instruction, and conditions on your water may differ. Check the current rules for the state and water you paddle.

Key Takeaways

Ownership and use are separate. Montana Code Annotated §23-2-309 leaves title unchanged by the recreational-use provisions. Texas’s 1929 land-grant statute preserves public and state rights in stream waters.²³
The legal boundary is not simply today’s waterline. Montana defines its ordinary high-water mark by the physical characteristics water leaves on land it covers for long enough periods. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department explains that a streambed can include land not covered by water at a given water level.⁴⁵
A water-use right does not grant a private-land approach. Montana §23-2-302(4) grants no right to enter or cross private property to use the water. For waters covered by Texas Parks and Wildlife Code Chapter 90, §90.008(b) does not allow private-property access without the landowner’s permission.¹⁶
The conditions matter. Montana’s permission is subject to statutory exclusions and restrictions set by its Fish and Wildlife Commission. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s fishing FAQ describes conditions for walking and wading in a creek bed, without going onto adjacent private property.¹⁴⁵⁷

Separate the bed, its boundary and the way in

A streambed, or riverbed, is land under and along a stream whose legal edge is described differently in these examples. Montana’s access definition includes the bed and banks up to the ordinary high-water mark described above. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department places the streambed within its gradient boundary, the legal boundary separating the bed from adjacent land.⁴⁵

For your reading of these two examples, there are three distinct issues:

Title: who owns the bed or bank. Montana’s statute expressly says recreational use does not change ownership.²
Use: what the cited law or agency explanation allows on the water or within its bed, with its conditions.¹⁵
Entry: whether you have a lawful route to that area. Montana’s water-use provision grants no right to enter or cross private property to reach the water. Texas’s Chapter 90 entry provision, within the scope described below, does not allow private-property access without permission. Montana’s separate, limited provision for passing artificial barriers is explained below.¹⁶⁸

Wading means walking through the water. Whether you may stand on or walk along the bed depends on each state’s cited law or agency explanation, not only on who holds title to the bed. Montana includes the bed in its access definition; Texas Parks and Wildlife Department expressly discusses walking and wading.⁴⁵

Montana example: recreational use within statutory limits

The Montana Legislature’s 2025 Code, §23-2-302(1), allows public recreational use of surface waters capable of that use regardless of ownership of the underlying land, subject to subsections (2) through (5). Section 23-2-301(10) includes floating in small craft, paddling and related unavoidable or incidental uses in its definition of recreational use.¹⁴

For this part of Montana’s law, surface water includes the natural water body, its bed and its banks up to the ordinary high-water mark. The mark distinguishes land covered by water for sufficient periods to develop different physical characteristics from land above it. Characteristics below the line include, when appropriate, the soil’s loss of substantially all terrestrial vegetation and destruction of its agricultural vegetative value. An adjacent floodplain is not within that mark.⁴

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks summarizes the law as permitting water-related recreation up to the ordinary high-water mark, while not allowing recreationists to enter posted lands bordering those streams or to cross private lands to reach them.⁹ The statute supplies important limits to that summary:

Without the landowner’s permission or a contractual arrangement, subsection (2) excludes recreational use of stock ponds and other private impoundments fed by intermittently flowing natural watercourses. It also excludes use of waters while diverted away from a natural water body for the water uses specified in subsection (2)(c), except impoundments or diverted waters the owner has opened to public access. Section 23-2-301(6) defines that diversion as passage through a constructed system, such as an irrigation or drainage canal or ditch; it excludes the lake, stream or reservoir a water system draws from.¹⁴
Without the landowner’s permission or a contractual arrangement, subsection (2) also excludes non-water motor vehicles, big-game hunting, permanent objects and use of a streambed as a right-of-way when no water is flowing. Overnight camping is excluded unless necessary for enjoying the surface water and the campsite is out of sight of any occupied dwelling or more than 500 yards (about 457 meters) from one, whichever is less. Seasonal objects, such as duck blinds or boat moorages, have the same necessity and sight-or-distance conditions for that particular surface water. An occupied dwelling is a building used as a human dwelling at least once a year.¹⁴
Subsection (3) sets additional limits for class II waters, defined as surface waters other than class I waters, except lakes. Without the landowner’s permission, the public-use right there excludes big-game hunting, overnight camping, seasonal objects and activities that are not primarily the defined water-related recreation.¹⁴

The class I definition contains survey, ownership and commercial-use tests. This guide does not classify a reach as class I or class II. The distinction matters here because the statute attaches different restrictions to them.¹⁴

Subsection (4) grants no easement or right to enter or cross private property to use the water. An easement in this context is a right to use land belonging to someone else; the water-use provision does not give you that approach route. Subsection (6) leaves unaffected the public’s rights concerning state-owned school-trust lands and the rights of their lessees. Section 23-2-302 neither adds to nor removes those rights; this guide does not describe them.¹

Restrictions can apply to the use itself

Section 23-2-302(5) requires Montana’s Fish and Wildlife Commission to adopt rules governing recreation for public health, safety and protection of property. The current Administrative Rules of Montana provide petition procedures for restrictions and for identifying class II streams capable of no or limited recreational use. Under rule 12.4.104(4), the commission may act on a petition to restrict or prohibit use to relieve the kinds of damage listed in subsection (2), such as damage to banks, adjacent land or a landowner’s property, harm to fish or wildlife, or degradation of the water body. It must choose the least disruptive action that still provides the necessary protection. Under rule 12.4.106(5), it may act on a petition about a class II stream to restrict or prohibit use to match the stream’s actual capacity, with the same least-disruption requirement.¹⁴⁷

Rule 12.4.103(10) also provides for temporary closure or restriction, on an affected landowner’s petition, under its specified irreparable-harm conditions until the commission acts on the petition. These provisions explain why the general statute alone does not answer whether your intended use is allowed on a particular stretch.⁷

Montana example: portage is a separate, limited provision

Portage here means going around or over an obstruction while making recreational use of the water. Montana §23-2-311 addresses barriers, defined in §23-2-301(1) as artificial obstructions that totally or effectively obstruct recreational use at the time, including structures such as fences or bridges.⁴⁸

Section 23-2-311(1) permits passage above the ordinary high-water mark around such barriers in the least intrusive manner possible, avoiding damage and violations of the landowner’s rights. If a structure does not interfere with public use of the surface water, subsection (2) says the public may not go above the mark to portage around it. Once a portage route is established under subsection (3), the public must use it as the exclusive route around or over that barrier. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks must post notices on the stream identifying the established route and the public’s obligation to use it (§23-2-311(3)(f)).⁸

This is not a general private-bank crossing permission. Subsection (4) says this part of the Montana Code does not address natural barriers or portage around them, and does not make that portage lawful or unlawful.⁸

Texas example: title and public rights in stream waters

The Texas Legislature’s current compilation includes article 5414a of Vernon’s Civil Statutes, enacted in 1929. Its conditional grants of specified land and riverbed interests preserve the rights of the general public and the state in stream waters.³

This provision illustrates the distinction: a grant of a bed interest can preserve public and state rights in stream waters. It does not determine what a particular deed conveys or give you permission to enter a particular parcel.³

Texas example: walking, wading and the bed boundary

Texas Parks and Wildlife Code Chapter 90 defines a navigable river or stream as one retaining an average width of 30 or more feet (about 9 meters) from the mouth or confluence upstream; a confluence is where streams join. Under §90.003(b), the entire chapter excludes a river whose headwaters and mouth or confluence are both outside Texas. This definition and exclusion govern the Chapter 90 provisions below; they do not determine whether a particular river meets them.⁶

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s current fishing FAQ does not define “navigable.” It says the public may walk or wade in a creek bed if the bed is publicly owned or the creek is navigable, provided they do not go onto adjacent private property. A privately owned, nonnavigable creek bed requires the owner’s permission to wade in the creek or to walk next to it. The agency says there is no right to trespass to reach a public streambed.⁵

The FAQ says the bed consists of land within its gradient boundary and warns that locating this boundary often requires a professional survey. Where the bed is publicly owned or the creek is navigable, the FAQ says that when water is below the boundary there may be dry bank the public may lawfully use; when water is at or above it, there may be no way to get in or out of the river without landowner permission. It also rejects the claim that you may walk along a creek as long as you stay within a certain distance of the water.⁵

Within Chapter 90’s scope, §90.001(4) defines a protected freshwater area as the bed, bottom or bank of a navigable river or stream at or below its gradient boundary, excluding portions below tidewater limits. Section 90.008(a) says that, except as otherwise allowed by law, a person may not restrict, obstruct, interfere with or limit public recreational use of that area. Subsection (b) does not allow the public to use private property to reach it without the landowner’s permission.⁶

Within that same scope, §90.007(a) says recreational use of a protected freshwater area cannot create a prescriptive easement over private property: that recreational use does not by itself become a legal right to use the land. It lists portage over or around barriers, scouting obstructions and crossing private property to or from the area as uses that cannot create such an easement. Subsection (b) says nothing in this section limits the right to navigate in, on or around a protected freshwater area. The section grants no portage route, and the cited sources do not settle whether you may portage across a private bank.⁶

The two examples side by side

Question	Montana example	Texas example
How do the texts separate title from use?	Section 23-2-309 leaves ownership unchanged by the recreational-use provisions.²	Article 5414a’s conditional grants of specified bed interests preserve public and state rights in stream waters.³
What use do the cited texts describe?	Recreational use of capable surface waters, regardless of bed ownership, subject to §23-2-302(2)–(5).¹	The fishing FAQ describes walking and wading in a publicly owned or navigable creek bed without going onto adjacent private property. Within Chapter 90’s scope described above, §90.008(a) bars interference with public recreational use of a protected freshwater area except as otherwise allowed by law.⁵⁶
What boundary is described?	Natural water body, bed and banks to the statutory ordinary high-water mark; adjacent floodplain excluded.⁴	Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s gradient-boundary explanation; the bed need not match today’s wetted area.⁵
Does water use grant a private-land approach?	No right to enter or cross private property to use the water under §23-2-302(4); artificial-barrier portage is a separate provision.¹⁸	Within Chapter 90’s scope described above, §90.008(b) does not allow private-property access without the landowner’s permission.⁶
What does the portage text cover?	Artificial barriers, with statutory route and landowner-protection conditions; natural barriers not decided.⁸	Private-bank portage permission is not covered by the cited sources. Within Chapter 90’s scope, §90.007(a) names portage as a use that cannot create a prescriptive easement; subsection (b) does not limit navigation.⁶

Find the official check for your water

For the Montana example, Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ stream-access page is the agency starting point, alongside the statutory definitions, exclusions and current rules above. The agency notes that certain waters on national parks, Indian reservations or wildlife refuges may have special rules and points to the relevant headquarters for specific information. Its stream-access page also links a Class I waters list; this guide does not describe that list’s contents.⁹ For the Texas example, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s fishing FAQ explains the bed and private-entry distinctions. Neither example on this page resolves your reach’s title, boundary or approach route.¹³⁵

For another state, the state-rule checking guide points you to that state’s own agency; its directory is a lookup aid, not a comparison of laws. The launch-permits and access-fees guide addresses the separate facility-permission question. The river-flow and tide guide covers reading water information. The Safety library connects those checks.

Separately, the American Canoe Association’s 2011 Paddler’s Safety Checklist lists knowing the weather conditions and the water you plan to paddle.¹⁰

Montana Legislature, Montana Code Annotated §23-2-302, 2025 Code, all six subsections; checked October 3, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵
Montana Legislature, Montana Code Annotated §23-2-309, 2025 Code; checked October 3, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Texas Legislature, Vernon’s Civil Statutes, article 5414a §§1–3, enacted 1929; compilation rendered July 28, 2026, pp. 199–200; checked October 3, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Montana Legislature, Montana Code Annotated §23-2-301, 2025 Code, definitions including (1), (2), (3), (4), (6), (8), (9), (10) and (12); checked October 3, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Fishing FAQ: What is the public’s right to fish in streams and rivers in Texas?, undated; checked October 3, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Texas Legislature, Parks and Wildlife Code Chapter 90, §§90.001(3)–(4), 90.003(b), 90.007 and 90.008; effective September 1, 2003; checked October 3, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Montana Secretary of State, current Administrative Rules of Montana: 12.4.103, 12.4.104 and 12.4.106, effective July 12, 1985; checked October 3, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³
Montana Legislature, Montana Code Annotated §23-2-311, 2025 Code, (1)–(4); checked October 3, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Stream Access in Montana, undated; checked October 3, 2026. ↩ ↩²
American Canoe Association, Paddler’s Safety Checklist, 2011, p. 1; checked October 3, 2026. ↩