Description

Registration deadline is 9/18/2023 at 5pm.

The course will teach attendees how to interpret the Natural Water Bodies and Land Preservation Disclosure (Lines 269-275) of the Residential Buy-Sell Agreement. Particularly, the course will cover the ins and outs of the Montana Natural Stream Bed and Land Preservation Act of 1975 (310 Law). 

With many buyers moving to Montana from out of state, purchasers are not necessarily familiar with Montana's regulations regarding properties containing or adjacent to streams, rivers, wetland, floodplains, and other water bodies. Real estate agents are often the first professionals to talk to buyers and have the opportunity to be the source of the source of information regarding protection and permitting these important natural areas. Agents and their customers will benefit from knowing what is potentially allowed in the natural areas and what permits must be pursued. 

Learning Objectives: 

• Land use permitting near water bodies. 
• What is the 310 Law? Who enforces it? 
• Violations and how to rectify them.

Instructor: Radley Watkins, Executive Director, Missoula Conservation District

Radley Watkins has a broad background in conservation, natural resource management, and real estate. He has worked for a Wisconsin Conservation District where he headed the aquatic species management program and did some shoreline restoration. Radley attended the University of Montana and received an undergraduate degree in bio-geography. He received his master’s degree from Michigan Tech’s forestry department where he focused on landscape ecology. This background has allowed him to work as a wildlife ecologist in Washington, a county land-use planner in northern Idaho, and a lake management consultant and real estate agent in Wisconsin. Radley spent the last two decades living in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, the third most lake-rich region of the world where Radley’s family has owned shoreline property for over 70 years. Managing family land has given Radley hands-on experience balancing natural resource regulation with maintaining a historic way of life. Radley believes that conserving biodiversity and naturally functioning ecosystems increases real estate values and makes a community a better place to live.