Billings Gazette - 10/1/03

Rehberg renews attack on Missouri Breaks monument boundary

By TED MONOSON
Gazette Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Montana Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg on Tuesday renewed his effort to pass legislation to remove private property from the Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

"The federal government's decision to include more than 80,000 acres of private land in the Monument's boundary sends one clear and unmistakable message to the families involved: Washington wants your land," Rehberg said.

The House Resources committee, which held a hearing on the bill on Tuesday, passed an identical bill last year. The legislation died because neither the full House of Representatives nor the Senate passed it.

Critics say the legislation, HR 1629, is not necessary because under the law private lands are already excluded.

"This is not a new subject," said Virgin Island delegate Donna Christensen, the top Democrat on the committee's National Parks and Public Lands panel. "We brought this up last year and at that time there were some fundamental misperceptions holding sway over the facts. Clearly those misperceptions still exist."

Former President Bill Clinton angered Rehberg and other Western Republican lawmakers by using the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create several national monuments in the West. Most of the monuments, including the Missouri River Breaks, were created in 2001, shortly before the end of Clinton's second presidential term.

The 377,000-acre Missouri River Breaks Monument was created in Jan. 17, 2001. Private landowners hold 82,000 acres within the monument and the state of Montana owns 39,000 acres.

Despite being located within the boundaries of the monument, the private and state lands are not federal property. Rehberg and supporters of the bill would like the monument's boundaries to be scaled back so that they do not include the private lands. Rehberg said the private lands were included in the boundary as part of an effort to eventually have them purchased by the federal government.

"Ranchers and farmers that have worked the same land for generations woke up on Jan. 18, 2001, to find their families scooped up inside the boundary of an enormous new federal monument," Rehberg said. "Those 127 landowners found themselves -- and their land -- swept into the boundary of the monument, despite their opposition to being included."

Coffee Creek rancher Hugo Tureck testified against last year's bill and returned to Washington on Tuesday to testify against this year's version.

"I hope we can resolve this," said Tureck, vice chairman of Friends of the Missouri River Breaks Monument. Tureck's ranch is located 25 miles outside of the Monument's boundary.

When asked how it could be resolved, Tureck responded, "People could wake up and recognize that private property rights are protected by the Antiquities Act."

Mathew Knox, who is from Winifred and is chairman of the Missouri River Stewards, traveled to Washington to testify for the measure.

"If it is true that monument rules do not apply to private lands, as federal officials have stated, then one should not expect there to be any adverse impact on the federal land in the monument by removal of the private land," Knox said. "Clearly, removing the private land from the monument will greatly reduce inadvertent trespass and conflicts between landowners and monument visitors and diminish the temptation for federal buyouts."

Rehberg said that despite offering the legislation, he supports the monument.

Interior Department deputy assistant secretary Chad Calvert endorsed the bill and called for it to be expanded to include the 39,000 acres of state lands.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., opposed last year's bill, but promised to give the issue another look.

"I'll do anything to protect private property rights," Baucus said. "I think the private lands are officially protected, but I am willing to look at the issue again."

Tureck is confident that Baucus will oppose Rehberg's effort again. "I don't think he's hedging," Tureck said. "I just don't think he's thought about it lately."