Billings Gazette - January 18,2003
Guest Opinion: Breaks monument can be a boon in tough times

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By HUGO TURECK
Montana Rancher

This week marks the official start of the Lewis and Clark expedition bicentennial. Observances kick off at Monticello, Va., the home of Thomas Jefferson. It was his idea that sent the Corps of Discovery journeying to the headwaters of the Missouri River and over the Continental Divide to the far ocean, envisioning a new nation stretching from sea to shining sea.

There's another anniversary this week commemorating an event 198 years more recent. With the same river flowing through the same stunning scenery that Lewis and Clark beheld, both are very much connected. And even if there's little notice of the anniversary of the creation of the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument, Jan. 17, 2001, we should take stock of what an American vision, and particularly our own Montana vision, has meant for our region in just two years.

Effects of drought

My family and I raise cattle and grain near Coffee Creek, not far to the south of the Missouri River and the new monument. We've been working this land for many years, and I've seen it at its best and worst. Going into our fifth year of drought, times have been hard for farmers and ranchers. Businesses have closed, school enrollments have fallen, and so have the spirits of my neighbors. We depend upon agriculture, and it hasn't been sufficient to keep the economy going in this part of Montana, what the tourist guides call "Charlie Russell Country."

For the past two years, however, this has been Missouri Breaks country too, and I've watched new hope seeding even if crops aren't. I see it in businesses in Fort Benton and Lewistown. It's too early to measure solid results, but nearly everyone agrees that the new monument is a plus for our region. Certainly there has been nothing negative about it.

Traditional uses continue, property rights haven't been violated and people are far more accepting, even proud, to live near a landscape recognized nationally as something special. More important, it's increasingly recognized that the monument has potential to be an economic driver for this region, benefiting all of us by drawing visitors and money while protecting the best asset we have.

I was chairman of the Bureau of Land Management's Central Montana Resource Advisory Council (RAC) when the pros and cons of establishing the monument were debated. The RAC is made up of ranchers, sportsmen, conservationists, elected officials and representatives of timber and oil and gas interests, so I heard firsthand plenty of discussion, and a wide range of views, regarding the monument. I was struck through all the hearings that everyone who commented on the proposed monument, whether for or against it, clearly loved the land, clearly wanted to see it kept as it is.

Most Montanans, however, saw taking a step beyond talk, really doing something to preserve the Breaks and its traditional uses, including ranching, as a worthy goal. Ranchers or floaters, hikers or hunters, fishermen or bird and wildlife watchers, their passion was similar. They wanted to save 149 miles of the Missouri River, its famed White Cliffs section, and all the natural, historical and scenic treasures embodied in the 377,000 acres of the Breaks through which it winds, for generations to come.

Protecting the Upper Missouri isn't a new notion. In the 1970s, ranchers, conservationists, and business people stood together to stop a series of dams from being built on this portion of the river. In 1976, their efforts were rewarded with a Wild and Scenic River designation. That foresight helps explain why we have some pristine river left today, the only stretch in fact that still appears as it did when the Corps of Discovery toiled upstream. The designation only protected the river corridor however, not the upland breaks. Recognizing ever increasing pressures, Montanans said the entire landscape deserves full protection.

Federal funding

The monument belongs to all of us, and we've told the BLM how we'd like to see it managed. But for BLM to safeguard natural values while facilitating visitation sure to rise with interest in Lewis and Clark, Congress needs to provide funding for the monument. As that historic journey of 200 years ago reminds us, an inspired idea is only the start of the real work needed to make it meaningful.