Court ruling mixed on Breaks plan

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed much of the management plan in place for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument but ordered additional study of historic sites. Conservation groups had charged the plan allowed too many roads and airstrips and didn’t protect the wild character of wilderness study areas in the monument. In a ruling Wednesday, a three-judge circuit court panel rejected those claims and held the BLM complied with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act in coming up with the plan. On another claim, the judges sided with the conservation groups, ruling the agency violated the National Historic Preservation Act. As a result, the BLM will have to conduct an in-depth survey of roads, ways and airstrips to see whether they impact cultural and historic properties. A U.S. district judge in Great Falls had upheld the entire plan. President Bill Clinton created the 375,000-acre monument using the Antiquities Act in 2001, and the BLM went to work on a new resource management plan in 2002. The plan was approved in 2008. It closed 201 miles of roads and ways year-round, 111 miles seasonally and left 293 miles open year-round. It prohibited off-road vehicle use, closed four airstrips year-round and one seasonally, and left five open year-round...more