BLM’s management plan gets support as well as opposition

A group of central Montana landowners filed Tuesday to intervene in lawsuits over the Bureau of Land Management’s management plan for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Four counties — Blaine, Fergus, Phillips and Chouteau — have also filed to intervene in the litigation. The Missouri River Stewards, although not agreeing with BLM’s entire plan, still filed to uphold the work that is being challenged by the Montana Wilderness Association, Friends of the Missouri River Breaks and the Western Watersheds Project. Matt Knox, chairman of the Stewards group and a Winifred rancher, contended in a statement that if the groups prevail in their lawsuit against the BLM, it could have “profound negative impacts” on those who own 81,000 acres of land within the monument’s boundaries. Specifically, the landowners are worried that livestock grazing could be eliminated in the monument, as well as access by historic roads. Ranchers have 93 grazing permits on 363,000 acres of federal land within the monument and farm and ranch on 39,000 acres of state land inside its boundaries. All told, about 10,500 cattle utilize the acreage, the Stewards group said...read more