Lewistown News-Argus - 8/30/01
Task force finalizes recommendations: Despite protests, task force recommends shrinking monument boundaries
by Jacques Rutten, News-Argus Outdoors Editor

Slashing boundaries, continuing grazing, keeping the door open for pipeline development and protecting ranchers were on the minds of task force members Tuesday in Havre where they met to finalize their recommendations to Gov. Judy Martz regarding the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

After spending the weekend reading through 1,700 written comments, the vast majority of which supported the monument in its current form, task force members instead chose to recommend shrinking the boundaries even further than they had initially suggested.

"In order to be consistent, we decided to follow the Wild and Scenic area," said Chouteau County Commissioner and task force member Harvey Worrall, adding they also excluded a Wilderness Study Area in Phillips County that was left in the monument under their preliminary plan.

If the recommendations are followed, the size of the monument will be reduced from 374,976 acres to roughly 84,946 acres. The new boundaries would mirror the current Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River, a federal designation given to the area in 1976.

"Ninety percent of the protection is going to be needed right in the river corridor," said Worrall, adding he does not feel the BLM could do an adequate job managing the many acres of uplands away from the river.

In case Martz does not accept the boundary proposal, the task force also formed an alternative recommendation. In it they suggest that any new boundary drawn should exclude private property.

Winifred's Ron Poertner, a spokesman for the Missouri River Stewards, applauded the efforts and recommendations of the task force.

"I think the governor and her task force are right on target," he said.

The Secretary of the Interior asked the governor for input and lined out the specific issues she wanted addressed. "What better way to do that than by talking to elected representatives from the areas impacted most by the monument?" After forming its draft proposal regarding the boundaries at a meeting in Fort Benton last week, the task force drew harsh criticism from monument supporters who felt the committee had broken its own rules by making recommendations without considering the written comments.

The governor's office agreed to make 11,900 copies of the letters, which were then distributed to each task force member. Despite the fact letters supporting the monument outnumbered those opposed to it by a two-to-one margin, Worrall said few supporters specifically mentioned boundaries.

"The feeling we got from the majority of the letters was that they just wanted a monument and didn't care if we pulled in the boundaries, just as long as they had a monument," he said.

But Bob Decker, executive director of the Montana Wilderness Association, strongly disagrees. His organization obtained copies of all the letters and are in the process of doing an analysis.

"I defy anyone to read these letters and not conclude that protection of the original boundaries is not an overwhelming theme," said Decker. He estimates 85 to 90 percent of the supporting letters specifically mention their support of the boundaries, even though they may not specifically say the word "boundary."

"Almost everyone made some pointed statement about protecting the designation," he said. "Anyone who discounts letters that don't specifically have the word boundary is really running to avoid the central truth of those letters."

Coffee Creek rancher and former BLM Resource Advisory Council chairman Hugo Tureck said task force members had their minds made up before reading any of the written comments.

"All of these task force members, when asked to consider these letters, never talk about what proponents say. They only give reasons why they can dismiss these letters," said Tureck. "To me, that is ample evidence their minds were already made up."

Worrall also said very few of the letters from local people supported the monument.

"Overwhelmingly they were the opposite way," he said, pointing out that in Chouteau County, only five letters were written in support of the monument, while "very many" were opposed to it. "And the local letters definitely carried some added weight."

The reason for that, said Worrall, was because that is what Norton requested.

"We did pay attention to the public comments, but we paid a lot more attention to local input because that is what this task force was set up to do." He defined "local" by the counties that are directly affected by the monument.

Boundaries dominated the discussion Tuesday, just as they have throughout the task force's meetings during the last month. But they also breezed through a number of other issues in Havre.

With regards to grazing, Worrall said the permits must follow through for both existing and future permitees, rather than just the former. The task force also recommended that corridors for pipelines and power lines remain in place, because they result in minimal impacts and large benefits to the counties. They also did not recommend reserving water rights for the monument in order to preserve cottonwood stands because most of the cottonwoods are on private land anyway.

"The main thing," said Worrall, "is that this is not a battle between environmentalists and ranchers. Everybody wants the same goal. We want to be able to coexist with the environment."

"This area is here to view because of the way ranchers have taken care of it in the past. We want to coexist with the environment, not isolate it."

Poertner also credits ranchers for the pristine beauty of the Breaks, and says promoting it as a tourist destination via the monument will not enhance that.

"If these people are serious about keeping it wild and pristine, tourism is not the route to take. It deserves better than that. We're not ready to make the Missouri River a gift to the nation."

Martz will have until Sept. 1 to alter the group's recommendations before forwarding them to Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

But what will happen after that remains something of a mystery. Supporters say it would take legislative action to alter the monument. But opponents like Poertner hope President George W. Bush will use his executive powers to carry out the task force's recommendations.

"I don't see this a drill in futility," said Poertner. "We're not just going through this to flap our gums.

"What we're asking for is reasonable and I'm optimistic we can succeed," he said, adding that there are many examples of presidents in the past using their executive authority to shrink monuments. "If Bill Clinton and Bruce Babbitt can single-handedly lock up millions of acres, I think George Bush has the same authority (to reverse that)."

"It has been done in the past.