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Western Monument At-Risk: Help Keep the Missouri River Breaks Wild!
 The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in north-central Montana is a rugged, unspoiled landscape with a spectacular array of wildlife and wild areas. The monument also has significant historical and cultural values, as Lewis and Clark spent weeks exploring the river and surrounding area.
Recently, the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the monument, released a draft plan that will determine the future of the 377,000-acre area. Unfortunately the draft plan fails to safeguard the area’s wildlife, scenic, historical, and biological resources that the monument status was intended to preserve.
We need your help: please take action now and tell the BLM to draft a management plan that will give real protection to this unique monument, and the resources that make it so special!
Please take a few minutes to personalize your letter -- identical comments carry little weight with the BLM! Are you having trouble with this page? Click here.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Meaningful Protection needed for Missouri Breaks
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
The Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument is both an outstanding landscape and an important part of America's history. As a westerner, I am concerned that the draft management plan fails to safeguard the area's wildlife, scenic, historical, and biological resources that its monument status was intended to preserve.
First, your proposal to sanction nearly 400 miles of roads and leave 97 percent of the monument within one mile of a road is unacceptable. Instead, please designate a minimum road network and ensure that all roads are closed unless designated open. The entire 149 miles of river within the monument should also be non-motorized, to safeguard the traditional non-motorized recreation on the river.
Please manage Wilderness Study Areas, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, and the Wild and Scenic River corridor to protect, enhance and restore their remote character and natural values. Finally, I urge you to eliminate all airstrips from the monument, as their presence undermines the goal of preserving and protecting the area's wildlife and undeveloped quality.
Please do all you can to make sure that we may pass along to our children a monument every bit as wild and natural as we are privileged to enjoy today. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
April 20, 2006
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 The Upper Missouri River Breaks area in north-central Montana is a wild, stunning landscape that is highly deserving of the monument status bestowed on it five years ago. The area offers unparalleled scenery, cultural and historical artifacts and locales, and countless opportunities to view wildlife, hunt and fish, and to enjoy solitude and recreation.
According to the Monument Proclamation explaining why this place is worthy of protection, the Upper Missouri River Breaks “contains a spectacular array of biological, geological and historical objects of interest. The area has remained largely unchanged in the nearly 200 years since Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled through it on their epic journey.” And the area supports the "most viable elk herd in Montana and one of the premier bighorn sheep herds in the continental United States."
Sadly, the BLM’s new draft plan for the future management of this area does not reflect the significance of the landscape and fails to safeguard the area’s wildlife, scenic, historical, and biological resources that its monument status was intended to preserve. Specifically, the misguided plan would:
- Sanction nearly 400 miles of roads and leave 97 percent of the monument within one mile of a road, which is simply too many roads for a national monument;
- Permit airstrips within the monument, the presence of which undermine the goal of preserving and protecting the area's wildlife and undeveloped character; and
- Allow motorized traffic on the Wild and Scenic River corridor within the monument, which should be managed to protect the remote character and traditional non-motorized recreation and hunting opportunities of the river.
 Public sentiment across the West has consistently supported a conservation-based approach to managing the Missouri River Breaks. Since 2002, when management planning started, more than 18,500 people have sent the BLM their comments. Nearly all urged the agency toward a strong conservation vision, asking for fewer roads, a quiet river corridor, and the elimination of airstrips.
Now, we have an important opportunity to ensure that the monument will remain unspoiled, and will continue to offer essential wildlife habitat and provide recreational opportunities for generations to come. We need your help to encourage the agency to build a visionary, conservation-based stewardship program that will protect the integrity of the monument and the values for which it was designated.
Real protection for the monument will not only result in deserved and sensible conservation of a unique place, but will help nourish one of the best economic growth opportunities for the region. Please take action today! If you would like to submit your comments directly to the BLM, please send them to:
Monument RMP Team
BLM Lewistown Field Office
P.O. Box 1160
Lewistown, MT 59457
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