Great Falls Tribune - August 19, 2001
BLM official details what monument does, does not do
by David L. Mari

With the recent meetings held by the Governor's Task Force, the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument has again taken center stage among public resource issues in central Montana. Few recent public land topics have created as much discussion and emotion (on all sides of the designation) as the monument.

A thorough public discussion is a normal and healthy process that Bureau of Land Management encourages and welcomes.

However, the amount of misinformation surfacing now about the monument is of growing concern. Some of this misinformation is the byproduct of repeated rumor, and the discourse has now developed tones of intimidation and threats. This is not part of a healthy process and will not change any decisions regarding the monument.

The final State Director's Guidance for Managing the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument clearly discusses how this area will be managed for the next several years until a final monument resource management plan is completed. With few exceptions, this guidance is a continuation of how these public lands were managed prior to designation. I would invite anyone interested to obtain a free copy of this guidance from our office.

In the interim, it seems necessary to again address some things the designation does and does not do in order to clarify some of the misinformation and to calm some of the emotion surging through this discussion.

The designation does not:

• Apply to or encumber any private land.
• Limit any landowners' freedom to use or sell his/her private property.
• Change the way livestock grazing is managed on public land within or outside of the monument.
• Close existing roads on public land or close access to private property.
• Reduce any entity's ability to fight wildfires.
• Reduce any entity's ability to conduct search and rescue or law enforcement operations.
• Change the way hunting and fishing opportunities are managed throughout the monument.
• Change the way motor boat use is managed on the Upper Missouri River.

The designation does:

• Require that motorized vehicles stay on established roads, except for emergency services.
• Withdraw unleased portions of the monument from new oil and gas leasing.
• Encompass the western portion of the Missouri Breaks landform.
• Include the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River, six wilderness study areas, the Cow Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern, segments of the Lewis and Clark and the Nez Perce National Historic Trails, the Missouri Breaks National Back Country Byway, and portions of the Bullwacker Drainage and Arrow Creek.

Due to Montanans' intermingled land ownership pattern, any boundary around this land type and these public lands features can not avoid encompassing some private property.

While the President's Proclamation clearly states that the designation applies only to public land and does not encumber these private lands, this has clearly become the most contentious part of the current discussion about the monument.

BLM has no hidden agenda for the private lands within this boundary.

However, if a willing landowner approaches BLM about an acquisition, easement or an exchange and the idea should eventually be completed, BLM would manage the acquired lands just as other public land within the monument.

The current boundary would allow that. Otherwise, it would take an act of Congress to include an acquisition from a willing seller in the monument.

There are some people who have a healthy skepticism about the federal government's intent, which I respect, but there are a few people who cannot be swayed, even by the facts, because accuracy does not serve their purpose. There is little BLM can do to allay the doubts of those people.

The last public resource debate of this nature and magnitude in central Montana was over a quarter of a century ago. People here at that time heard the same dire predictions and rumors about adding the Upper Missouri River to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system.

Some central Montanans were convinced (and worked at convincing others) that making the Upper Missouri River a wild and scenic river would be the last social, economic and political nail in central Montana's coffin. BLM said consistently that this would not be the case, and it wasn't.

Designation of the river as wild and scenic has had many positive social and economic benefits, and the same will be said of the monument 25 years from now.

A well-informed public is the best means of keeping public resource discussions of benefit to everyone.

I would like to invite anyone with questions about the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument to call or stop by the Lewistown BLM office and we'll gladly answer your concerns.

David L. Mari is Lewistown field manager, BLM, 1160 Airport Road, Lewistown