Editorial by Dave Byerly: Lewistown News-Argus

Our View: Fight Over Monument is Over, Seizing the Opportunities Must Begin

On Tuesday, new Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton ended one chapter in Central Montana history . . . and started another.

She said the Bush administration is not seeking to overturn any of former president Clinton's national monument designations.

With that, the debate over whether or not there will be a Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument is over. Now it's time for Central Montana to move forward. The single most important issue facing us today is economic development.

Our most important industry--agriculture--is struggling, with effects felt from our smallest communities to Lewistown's biggest merchants. Lewistown's Main Street is hurting. Its largest department store is closing. Lewistown's small family-owned businesses battle Billings and Great Falls and catalogs and the internet and scramble for customers and income in a shrinking market.

School enrollments are declining, with devastating effects on state funding (which has been declining in real dollars for more than a decade, even if enrollments had been steady). Jobs have been and will continue to be lost in area school districts, part of a downward spiral in population and our economy.

The numbers from Winifred are frightening (but typical of other Central Montana school districts). Winifred schools had 172 students two years ago, 153 last year, 129 this year. Enrollment next year is projected at 113, at 103 two years from now. Winifred has 16 students in its senior class. It has five in its kindergarten class and two in first grade.

Those enrollments and all they imply about Winifred's economy and demographics are much more important to the future of Central Montana than debating the designation of federal lands.

If we are to seize every opportunity for improving our future, we must change our attitude on the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. The monument gives Central Montana one of its best economic growth opportunities. We need to capitalize on this now ... as our neighbors to the northwest already are.

We should insist and work hard to prove that the monument headquarters (with its many jobs) be located in Lewistown. Monument staff could and should be stationed in Winifred. We should welcome the headquarters and new staff members with open arms.

We need to embrace and promote the concept that Lewistown and Central Montana are the primary gateway to the monument for the many tourists who will want to explore and see it.

We need to join Fort Benton and Great Falls in promoting the single biggest attractions--outside of (but right between) Glacier and Yellowstone--that will draw tourists and their dollars to Montana.

The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument is not a cure for our economic woes, but it offers more potential for jobs, dollars, and growth than anything else on the horizon right now. And its benefits will last forever if it's managed properly.

Those who want to re-fight the battles of the past have every right to do so. But Central Montana will wither on the vine if the rest of us join them. Instead, we need to seize the opportunities before us ... while we still can.

Dave Byerly, former publisher of the Lewistown News-Argus