From: [email protected] Subject: Upper Missouri Breaks Monument – Feb 21, BLM Meetings Start Land Rights Network American Land Rights Association PO Box 400 - Battle Ground, WA 98604 Phone: 360-687-3087 - FAX: 360-687-2973 Email: [email protected] Web Address: http://www.landrights.org Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE - Washington, DC 20003 Lewistown meeting the first at 6:00 PM, February 21st. *****Don’t fail to reach the Action Items and background below. Upper Missouri Breaks National MonumentResource Management Plan In late October 2005, the Bureau of Land Management finally released its draft resource management plan/EIS (RMP) to the public for a 90-day comment period. The comment period has been extended. A series of public meetings have been scheduled for citizens to learn more about the proposed planning alternatives, to ask questions, and to submit comments in person. Please look at this list of meetings. Make plans to go to at least one or more if possible. Call your neighbors and friends. Get them to go. Don’t assume they have been notified by anyone. You must do it. If you are a member of any user group such as snowbilers, pilots, cattlemen, hunters, or others, please call them to get an alert out to their organization members. Or simply forward this message to as many people as possible. The rescheduled BLM meetings, all starting at 6 pm, are: Tuesday, Feb. 21 Lewistown --Yogo Inn Thursday, Feb. 23 Fort Benton -- Ag Museum Monday, Feb. 27 Havre -- Holiday Village Mall Tuesday, Feb. 28 Chinook -- Chinook Motor Inn Wednesday, March 1 Big Sandy -- Big Sandy Community Hall Thursday, March 2 Hays -- John Capture Center Monday, March 6 Malta -- 1st State Bank Tuesday, March 7 Billings -- MSU Billings (Student Union Bldg) Wednesday, March 8 Great Falls -- Townhouse Inn Thursday, March 9 Kalispell -- Outlaw Inn Monday, March 13 Winifred -- Winifred Community Center Tuesday, March 14 Helena -- Jorgenson's *****Action Items: -----1. Make plans to go to at least one of the meetings listed above. The first in Lewistown on February 21st could well be the most important. That is where the BLM office is. Call and get others to go. -----2. Please call and order your copy of the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) at the BLM office in Lewistown (1-406-538-1900). -----3. If you have written comments, send them to: Monument RMP Team, BLM Lewistown Field Office, 920 NE Main St., PO Box 1160, Lewistown, MT 59457. Or e-mail them to: [email protected]. Or call (1-406-538-1900) to get the fax number to send your comments. -----4. Call to get on the BLM’s mailing list immediately. Call Monument Manager Gary Slagel or Jerry Majerus (BLM Missouri Breaks Monument planning manager) at (406) 538-1900. Your call is important. It tells them that not just the environmental groups are interested in this issue. They need to know that you will compete to keep access to private lands, ranching open and other uses available. -----5. When you call, tell them you support Alternative B. That keeps more of most of your uses available to you. Just calling does not complete what you need to do. They won’t keep a record of it. You must send written comments. Look for a Testimony Questionnaire in the mail in the next few days to help you do that. Background ----- PUBLIC COMMENT DEADLINE: APRIL 26, 2006. The new BLM plan for the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument will affect you no matter where you live in Montana. This BLM plan for the National Monument will set the tone for Federal land management throughout the Montana. It will cover the next 20 years. It is critical to boaters, ranchers, landowners, hunters, motorized vehicle users, airplane users and all the communities and counties in Montana. It is especially important to those inside the Monument and within 100 miles of the Monument. The green groups and some planners in BLM are trying to take away your rights. They are trying to cut off access, close nearly 200 miles of roads, gradually eliminate private land, force out motorized watercraft, and limit outfitters. They will hurt the Montana economy by cutting the number of possible oil and gas wells in half, limiting aircraft, cutting access by hunters and fishermen, reduce access to snowmobiles, cut access to private land and ranches, increase regulations for ranchers and other users and generally shut down economic activity in and around the National Monument. They are trying to turn the Monument area back to how it was in 1805 when Lewis and Clark came through. The greens want to selfishly lock up the entire area for their own personal use. They want anyone else’s use to be eliminated if in their eyes it conflicts with their vision for the Monument. This is part of a long process for the greens. They will be back in the future to expand the boundaries of the Monument, push for more land acquisition and regulations, and generally use the Monument as a tool to restrict access to surrounding lands and waters. If they get away with grabbing the land and uses in the Upper Missouri Breaks, it will give them momentum to get other areas of Montana set aside and lock you out. If you want to stop them, you’ve got to fight them in the Monument area. All Montana residents need to rise up and send the BLM a message that you do not want a Federal takeover of Montana state resources. You must push hard to limit the new Monument Plan as a way to prevent expansion elsewhere in Montana.. Your fighting hard on this issue will also send a message to those Federal bureaucrats and their green advocates that you will fight back against the Lynx Endangered Species Designation and land grab now under consideration by the Fish and Wildlife Service and other Federal agencies. Unless you stop it, this could have a massive effect on your lifestyle, job and future in Montana. If you get a reputation for standing up for your rights, the land grabbers will be less inclined to come after your property. They’ll go where the pickings are easier and people roll over and don’t fight back. So support the landowners, ranchers, users, and communities around the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument. Attend at least one of the meetings above. Plan to send written comments too. You’ll receive in the mail in the next few days a Testimony Questionnaire from the American Land Rights Association to fill out regarding how you think the Monument should be managed. Please fill it out and mail it back quickly. We will deliver it to the BLM in time for the official record and to your Congressman and Senators. This is important because Congress has a great influence on how these plans are implemented. Please forward this message as widely as possible. -- To unsubscribe from this mailing list; please visit http://governance.net and enter your email address.