Lewistown News-Argus - Guest Opinion - 8/11/01
Open letter to Gov. Judy Martz concerning the Monument
by Charlotte Trolinger, Bozeman

I am appalled by the efforts of your administration to undo the very public work accomplished concerning the Missouri Breaks National Monument by the BLM's Resource Advisory Council in 1999 and 2000. This bipartisan group represented quite fairly the diversity of interested parties who surround the area designated for the Missouri Breaks National Monument. They worked hard and publicly for two long years to find consensus for the final recommendations made to Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of Interior.

It was a council comprised of local folks who began the process with very different viewpoints concerning the Missouri Breaks area. Your recreated task force does not quite duplicate the earlier work as this new group is distinctly partisan, unlike the BLM-RAC. Many of the members of your task force, including the chair, are already on record as very vocal and high profile opponents of the Monument. This implies conclusions already made.

Furthermore, this task force is re-examining the issues in a cursory fashion, very quickly over a span of some weeks, without the fullness of testimony included by the earlier BLM- RAC. Beyond all the other dismaying aspects of your task force, it seems a redundant use of taxpayers' dollars as well - unless, of course, the point of such a task force is to reach the current administration's view rather than that reached earlier by the more public process.

I strongly urge you to support the Missouri Breaks National Monument with the boundaries as designated. There seem to be a few fallacies circulating to justify reversing the designation. The facts contradict them.

Re "Existing Uses:" The proclamation establishing the monument says explicitly, "The establishment of this monument is subject to valid existing rights." The proclamation recognizes all existing oil and gas rights and allows for development of those rights. All BLM, grazing permits or leases continue to apply. All hunting and fishing rights continue and will continue to be administered by the State of Montana. The Monument status prohibits only new oil and gas leases. The boundaries designated are a compromise to exclude specific areas with strong potential for gas development while still maintaining the smallest possible area for protection of the most important resources of the Breaks. There is no reversal or termination of any existing rights. Private property rights, access and traditional uses are protected by the monument designation.

In further consideration of the boundaries as designated, it is important to recognize they protect much more than the river. As any good steward of natural resources knows (which includes good farmers/ranchers), the health of a river requires far more than the physical path for the water. The boundaries attempt to protect some of the riparian zones of the Breaks, including some uplands areas such as the Bullwhacker area.

Rare and precious wildlife inhabit these areas and fill out the ecosystem's balance. Archeological resources seem to abound in some of these areas but have been examined only minimally on the whole. Monument designation does not prohibit any (existing or future) public or private access to any of these resources or the area. We have an extraordinary resource, in its natural and human histories, which the monument designation attempts to conserve.

These very resources are a powerful factor in encouragement of economic development and tourism in Montana. The entire area of the Monument is rich in the very qualities which are of increasing interest to tourists - cultural, historical, wildlife and wildland resource are a huge draw now. Tourism and recreation are projected by various studies to increase dramatically with the Lewis and Clark bicentennial commemoration, but I can attest they already have.

In the summer of 1996, I made a solo canoe trip of 150 miles on the Missouri, from Fort Benton to the Robinson Bridge at Kipp State Park. At that time, only one outfitter was operating in that area for vehicle shuttles, boat rentals, etc. (My own trip was aided by friends who live in the area).

By the following summer of 1997 there were numerous outfitters working in the area of Fort Benton to serve boaters for the Wild and Scenic stretch of the Missouri. While it is selfish of me, I am very glad I was able to experience the river as I did before the influx of people already underway! My trip was a wonderful week-long experience in some of the most extraordinary wild country of Montana, with much peaceful solitude and wildlife of all kinds. I heard and saw more bird life along the length of the river than I have heard anywhere else other than in some of the remaining jungle areas of Central America. Nowhere else have had so much opportunity to observe beavers - what extraordinary creatures! I was even fortunate enough to exchange a few minutes eye-to-eye with a paddlefish, which raised its head to check me out about 12 feet in front of my canoe bow.

Before and after that trip, I have explored extensively the country now being designated as the monument. I fear we are not protecting anywhere near enough of this incredible area. I have seen changes and loss of habitat already occurring over the past two decades. This is a fragile, invaluable treasure for all of us. If we wreck it, it is not reparable. I have traveled enough in other parts of the world and the U.S. to know this area is one of the wildest areas in the lower 48 states, as well as one of the more extraordinary areas of the world.

There are very few places where the press of human activities is not palpable now. This is one of the few where they are less so. I was delighted when the former federal administration finally acted on this matter. I am dismayed to see how rapidly current administrations are trying to undo the good accomplished. This area, this country of the Upper Missouri Breaks, is a treasure for all the planet and its creatures, not just us humans and Montana residents.

A long and thorough public process led to the designation of this area as a national monument. I participated in many ways, as did many others. I attended several different presentations, I testified at the BLM-RAC's public hearing on this issue (showing photographs of the region), l collected many pages of signatures on the petitions submitted and I wrote many letters to appropriate officials and to newspaper editors.

Numerous others in this region participated with far more efforts still. From firsthand observation, I know there was enormous opportunity for public participation in this designation process, no matter what current federal and state administrations declare. Perhaps a little summer trip, a day or two on the river in this area would add to your perspective and allow you to feel the area. Sometimes an issue such as this is too abstract unless one experiences the place directly.

Montanans have already indicated as an overwhelming majority that they appreciate the Missouri Breaks area beyond any possible short- or long-term commercial value and support the monument and boundaries as designated. (Greater and more sustainable economic benefit than from resource extraction is already deriving well from the area's remote and pristine character.)

I urge you to respect the wishes of the majority of Montanans on this matter as well as to do what is right for all of us in this era of accumulating loss of the natural world - please support the current designation and boundaries of the Missouri Breaks National Monument.