The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Central Montana protects a landscape remarkably unchanged since the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through it 200 years ago. Whether it remains that way depends on how the Monument is managed, and the management blueprint is now underway. The Wilderness Society and its conservation partners have been working to ensure that the management plan provides a strong framework for protecting the monument's exceptional values.
Unchanged Since Lewis and Clark
What is now the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument may be the single remaining place along their route that Lewis and Clark would still recognize today. The Monument remains rich in the sweep of its scenery, its history and its wildlife. Its 377,000-plus acres encompass river bottoms and upland breaks and provide intact habitat for 230 bird species and 60 mammal species, deer, elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep among them.
Keep it Wild!
A measure of the Monument's remaining wildness is the fact that it includes six wilderness study areas and the rugged Bullwhacker area that many consider to be the heart of the Breaks. The Wild and Scenic Missouri River generally bounds the Monument on the west and it extends to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge on the east. The Monument is still wild, remote and beautiful; the management plan must keep it that way.
Threats to the existence and protection of Upper Missouri River Breaks
The Monument is threatened by a variety of issues ranging from boundary adjustments to oil and gas development. Today, the oil and gas industry is lobbying to explore within the Upper Missouri River Breaks Monument. This is despite the fact that the Monument's boundaries intentionally excluded the largest area with oil and gas potential and that the Monument Proclamation language specifically recognized the right to explore for oil and gas on the 60,000 acres within the Monument that are under valid lease.
Standards for Management
Throughout the management plan process, we will insist that the final Resource Management Plan (RMP) must:
- Preserve and restore the Monument's wild, undeveloped character. A plan that achieves this goal will simultaneously protect all the other resources for which the monument was set aside.
- Provide for a Monument transportation system that relies on science to determine road retention and closure and the protection of natural and historic resources. There are too many roads in the Monument today and too little management of motorized use. The RMP should include solid provisions for monitoring and enforcement.
- Protect the Monument's wilderness study areas and other wildlands and core areas and set out a program and timeline for inventorying additional lands that may qualify as wilderness.
- Ensure that wildlife habitat is protected and restored. To enforce critical wildlife habitat and to foster the health of native trees and plants, BLM Standards and Guidelines for grazing leases should be monitored and enforced. The plan should provide for greatly reducing "hot season" grazing in riparian areas and for protecting wildlife in the uplands.
Transportation Effects on the Monument's Wildlife and Other Resources
Wilderness Society report presents compelling evidence that the current transportation network in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument has had a significant impact on wildlife populations and other fragile resources across the landscape.
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Upper Missouri River Breaks Facts
- Location: Central Montana
- Size: 377,346 acres
- Date: Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument was created on January 17, 2001
- Managing Agency: The Bureau of Land Management
County Economic Profiles
View economic profiles for counties where the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument is located. Profiles provide details of trends and components of the local economies.
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