Nemont
Well-known member
I think MTMiller is working on this. If you are interested in this please read.
This will be a great place to enjoy all outdoor activities. I have read the entire document and I find it to be reasonable in its approach to preserving this land for future generations.
Nemont
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
BLM council to meet on Breaks access
Associated Press
LEWISTOWN - A Bureau of Land Management advisory council will meet here all day Wednesday to consider how many miles of road and what areas should be open to the public in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.
"We have people who want all the roads to be open and certain groups of the general public who would like the majority of roads closed," said Gary Slagel, the BLM's monument manager.
The Central Montana Resource Advisory Council will consider roads that could be open for travel and possible restrictions or seasonal closures on some of those roads. The 15-member panel will hear from the public for the first hour, starting at 8 a.m.
By 2005, the BLM plans to have a resource management plan that balances ecological, biological, historical, cultural, recreational and transportation demands in the 477,000-acre monument.
The recommendations don't apply to private land or roads. The council, however, may discuss areas where the BLM needs to improve access.
Slagel said, for example, the Bullwhacker Urban Ridge area is a large chunk of public land with no public access. Currently, if the area is used, people cross private land, he said.
The board also may discuss the 10 airstrips inside the monument boundaries. They aren't being used, and the BLM is trying to find out more about their history.
Mark Good, field representative for the Island Range Chapter of the Montana Wilderness Association, said travel management is important in how the overall monument is used. He said access to the monument is important, but he stressed that access doesn't have to involve motorized transportation.
"It's possible to provide reasonable access to the monument, but it doesn't require hundreds of miles of 'two-tracks,' " Good said.
Those twin-rut trails left by vehicles break up wildlife habitat, spread noxious weeds and degrade the quiet beauty of the backcountry, he said. Such a road already splits the Bullwhacker, he added.
Good also said airstrips in the monument are not appropriate.
"If people want to come to visit the monument then they should look at landing in the gateway communities and visit how everyone else does," he said.
Copyright © 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 01-26-2004 11:17: Message edited by: Nemont ]</font>
This will be a great place to enjoy all outdoor activities. I have read the entire document and I find it to be reasonable in its approach to preserving this land for future generations.
Nemont
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
BLM council to meet on Breaks access
Associated Press
LEWISTOWN - A Bureau of Land Management advisory council will meet here all day Wednesday to consider how many miles of road and what areas should be open to the public in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.
"We have people who want all the roads to be open and certain groups of the general public who would like the majority of roads closed," said Gary Slagel, the BLM's monument manager.
The Central Montana Resource Advisory Council will consider roads that could be open for travel and possible restrictions or seasonal closures on some of those roads. The 15-member panel will hear from the public for the first hour, starting at 8 a.m.
By 2005, the BLM plans to have a resource management plan that balances ecological, biological, historical, cultural, recreational and transportation demands in the 477,000-acre monument.
The recommendations don't apply to private land or roads. The council, however, may discuss areas where the BLM needs to improve access.
Slagel said, for example, the Bullwhacker Urban Ridge area is a large chunk of public land with no public access. Currently, if the area is used, people cross private land, he said.
The board also may discuss the 10 airstrips inside the monument boundaries. They aren't being used, and the BLM is trying to find out more about their history.
Mark Good, field representative for the Island Range Chapter of the Montana Wilderness Association, said travel management is important in how the overall monument is used. He said access to the monument is important, but he stressed that access doesn't have to involve motorized transportation.
"It's possible to provide reasonable access to the monument, but it doesn't require hundreds of miles of 'two-tracks,' " Good said.
Those twin-rut trails left by vehicles break up wildlife habitat, spread noxious weeds and degrade the quiet beauty of the backcountry, he said. Such a road already splits the Bullwhacker, he added.
Good also said airstrips in the monument are not appropriate.
"If people want to come to visit the monument then they should look at landing in the gateway communities and visit how everyone else does," he said.
Copyright © 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 01-26-2004 11:17: Message edited by: Nemont ]</font>
