BLM head assures Missouri Breaks Monument stakeholders

Bob Abbey, the director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, was as blunt as he could be at a small gathering of Montana livestock producers here Monday. "We're not here to screw you over," Abbey said. "We're not here to create surprises." The meeting followed a 43-mile boat ride on the Missouri River in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument by Abbey and an entourage of state BLM officials. A big reason the monument was in proper shape to be designated in 2001 was because of the good condition it was in because of their care, Abbey told the ranchers. He assured them he wasn't planning to propose any new national monuments in their backyard. "We're not here to make your lives miserable," he said. In Montana, he had no big announcements as he did a year ago when he told 1,500 residents in Malta that the agency had no plans for another national monument designation in northeastern Montana, which had been discussed in an a BLM planning document...more