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PO Box 1175 (5530 North Montana) •
Helena, MT 59624
406-458-0227 (phone) • 406-458-0373 (fax) •
www.montanawildlife.com
Breaks
Monument Planning Process
Seeks Public Comment
By Larry
Copenhaver, Conservation Director
From: Montana
Wildlife
A Publication of the Montana Wildlife
Federation
Volume 27 • Number 5 • August/September
2003
Beginning in July, the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) began the next phase of developing a Resource
Management Plan (RMP) for the Upper Missouri River
Breaks National Monument in Montana by conducting
a series of public workshops in 11 communities across
northcentral Montana. The workshops were conducted
to gather specific management ideas, a vision of what
the public wants the Monument management plan to be,
from landowners, businesspersons, politicians, conservationists,
sportsmen and sportswomen, recreationists, and area
residents.
In the last issue of Montana Wildlife we listed the
6 phases that BLM must go through to draft and implement
a completed RMP. The first, the scoping phase, was
completed last summer and the second phase is underway
where a Draft Plan/Draft Environmental Impact Statement
is composed. To begin this phase BLM officials determined
that scoping comments fell into four categories and
the July workshops were organized to address these
four categories:
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Access and Transportation
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Visitor Use and Infrastructure
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Health of the Land and Fire
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Natural Gas Development and Exploration
Wildlife issues were not determined by the BLM to
be a single category. A management strategy for each
of the four categories will be intertwined with related
wildlife impact issues and have huge implications
to the future of wildlife within the Monument. It
is incumbent upon sportsmen and sportswomen to provide
input identifying wildlife and wildlife habitat as
of the highest priority in the RMP.
MWF insists that BLM officials pursue and maintain
healthy, sustainable, natural populations, population
dynamics and population distribution of wildlife species
existing within the Monument. MWF believes the following.
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Management plans must allow for
access to hunting opportunities but provide adequate
habitat security for wildlife propagation;
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Outfitting not be permitted where
the public does not enjoy equitable access. This
kind of commercial use would amount to a private
control of public opportunities to enjoy our public
lands and our public wildlife;
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Transportation Management Plans
should prohibit interference with Sage Grouse on
spring leks and bighorn sheep lambing and elk calving
areas.
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BLM should formally adopt a wildlife
management team with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks
and US Fish and Wildlife Service to maintain a streamlined
process to address wildlife management issues.
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River use must be balanced, can
offer a quiet experience, and allow for seasonal
controlled motorized watercraft use but some reaches
of the river (wild sections) should have greater
motorized watercraft restrictions due to habitat
impact. MWF also believes jet-ski use within the
Monument is inappropriate.
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Visitor facilities should be located
in surrounding communities rather than within the
Monument; present plans include building a visitor
center in Fort Benton.
The BLM has a challenge before them as they determine
a ‘Transportation Management Plan’ for
the Monument. A view of the Monument from the air
looks like a maze, a web of roads and two tracks running
down nearly every ridgeline. Presently roads are restricted
in crucial winter areas and off-road travel is not
allowed. Yet new two tracks seem to appear out of
nowhere on a frequent basis.
On the river, groups of up to 50 people can currently
use the river corridor but increases in public visitation
due to the upcoming Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration
will likely demand that those rules be reevaluated.
If the day comes when river use demands floater numbers
be restricted, such allocations must go to the individual
user rather than commercial service providers.
BLM has a responsibility to control all activities
that jeopardize wildlife and habitat integrity whether
those causes are from recreation activities or livestock
grazing. Many aspects of this management planning
process are, as of yet, incomplete. This phase of
the planning process is open for public comment until
the end of August.
Email your comments to monumentrmp@blm.gov
or send them to:
Monument Manager
Bureau of Land Management
Lewistown Field Office
PO Box 1160 – Airport Road
Lewistown, MT 59457
If you have any questions, feel free
to contact Larry Copenhaver at (800) 517-7256 or email
to lcopenhaver@mtwf.org.
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