81-4-301. Herd districts -- creation, size, and location. (1) Herd districts may be created in any county in the state of Montana:

(a) upon petition of owners or possessors of 55% of the land in the district and providing that 25% or more of the land in the district is in actual cultivation or being used for residential purposes; or

(b) upon petition of owners or possessors of 75% of the land in the district.

(2) Herd districts must contain 12 square miles or more, lying not less than 1 mile in width, outside of the incorporated cities, except that herd districts may be created containing not less than 6 or more than 54 square miles, lying not less than 2 miles in width, when the territory joins and is contiguous with the boundaries of a city having a population of 10,000 or more and the territory to be created in a herd district has a suburban population of not less than 200 people.

(3) In formation of a herd district the entire holding of any owner or lessee must be included unless the owner or lessee consents that less than the owner or lessee's entire contiguous holdings be included in the petition.

(4) The petition must designate the months of the year when the herd district is effective, and upon presentation and filing of the petition, properly signed, giving the outside boundaries and description of the proposed district and the post-office address of the petition signers, with the clerk and recorder in the county in which the district is being created, the county commissioners of that county, upon receipt of the petition, shall set a date for hearing protests and verifying the petition signatures and shall give not less than 20 days' notice of the hearing by three publications in a newspaper of general circulation in the county of the proposed district. At the hearing held pursuant to the notices, the county commissioners shall examine the petition and shall cause a map to be made in order to determine the shape and regularity of the boundaries of the proposed district. The commissioners may then establish the district, but the district shall be established only in a manner that the district will be reasonably regular and symmetrical in shape or practicable in relation to the geographical features of the district. It is not required that the boundaries of a district follow section lines to meet the requirement of reasonably regular and symmetrical boundaries.

(5) Should it appear to the county commissioners after the hearing that the signatures attached to the petition were genuine, they shall immediately declare the herd district created and established. After making the declaration, the county commissioners shall give notice by four weekly publications in a newspaper nearest the district of the creation of the district, also stating the period that the district will be in effect. A district may not be in effect until 30 days have expired after the order.

(6) If the signature of lessee appears on the petition creating or abolishing any herd district, the owner or owners of the land may appear either in person or by agent and enter their protest and the board of county commissioners shall remove the name of the lessee from the petition, and a person may not withdraw the person's name after the hour set for hearing the protest.