Preserving Backcountry Airstrips in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument Are A Watershed Opportunity for Montana Aviation.
Your Participation Is Needed Now!

History:
Presidential Proclamation created the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument on January 17, 2001. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the Monument. The location is in north central Montana and encompasses most of the Wild and Scenic portion of the Missouri River plus considerable areas of uplands.

Monument Status:
The BLM is moving into the final stages of developing and adopting a Resource Management Plan (RMP). The agency has received extensive public input over the past three years. The Montana Pilots’ Association has attended countless planning meetings in order to be closely involved in the process and also developed a forty-page informational document on aviation issues as they pertain to the Monument. In the spirit of cooperation the MPA has had a seat at the table in the planning process. The voice of aviation has been heard loud and clear and done so without being confrontational.

Airstrips:
Within the Monument are ten grass airstrips on public lands. Most were constructed at least forty years ago. Some of the airstrips have been in existence for over fifty years, giving them the status as also having historical significance. The BLM has included six of the ten airstrips in their preferred alternative (F) of the draft RMP. The BLM is now accepting public comments on their draft RMP alternatives. These backcountry airstrips are the only public ones on Federal Lands in Montana east of the Rocky Mountains.

How You Can Become Involved:
The BLM is now accepting public comments on their draft RMP alternatives. It is absolutely critical that the aviation community step forward with letters supporting the inclusion of the six airstrips in the final RMP. If not included under this initial plan the airstrips will be closed permanently to all use. The aviation community needs to act now and do so by offering our comments. In your letter/email, thank the Monument RMP planning team for including six airstrips in the preferred RMP alternative (Alternative F) and request that the six airstrips be included in the final RMP. Below is a shopping list of relevant comment ideas that can be incorporated into your RMP comments to the BLM.

Talking Points for Your Comments:
1) Airstrips fit into the overall management goals of the BLM, which include managing the Monument in a multiple use manner and providing access for diverse recreation opportunities.
2) Airstrips are internal trailheads, resulting in less use of across country, motorized travel to access the interior portions of the Monument.
3) Airstrips provide a method for disabled persons to reach remote sites within the Monument when they cannot suffer the long overland journey. This follows the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
4) Airstrips are useful for other activities aside from recreation such as search and rescue, firefighting efforts, law enforcement and land management activities.
5) The Missouri River corridor is widely used for east-west flights. There are no other airstrips in the area that could be used for emergency landing sites in case of poor flying weather or mechanical problems.
6) The use of an aircraft for travel is by personal preference just like other forms of motorized transportation, yet it has much less impact on the ground.
7) The airstrips within the Monument have been in existence for decades, yet there is no evidence of soil erosion. This is in marked contrast to scars left on the landscape by other forms of motorized transportation. Once an airplane has landed, it doesn’t move until it is ready to fly again. A plane has no powered wheels and does not tear up the ground.
8) The location of the airstrips on the uplands above the Missouri River precludes noise disturbance to the boaters in the river.
9) The airstrips are not just for pilots but their family and friends as well.
10) Despite the fact that the six airstrips appear on a map to be in close proximity to each other, the rugged, deeply incised landscape of the river breaks means that the airstrips are hours of foot travel apart from each other.
11) The six airstrips provide for a dispersed use of the landscape.
12) The aviation community would voluntarily perform maintenance necessary for the airstrips, thus not obligating State or Federal agencies’ personnel time or funding.
13) Legal research finds that there is no legal liability to be incurred by the BLM. Montana has a recreational use statute.
14) The airstrips were proposed for inclusion in the final RMP after consultation with area wildlife biologists. Seasonal restrictions would be placed on the airstrips to protect wildlife at vulnerable times of year.
15) The six airstrips would be charted and entered into the FAA database. The aviation public can then be notified of any seasonal closures needed to mitigate reasonable wildlife concerns.
16) The area in which the six airstrips are located is not of wilderness character. There are numerous roads, gas leases and wells, and livestock grazing improvements like fences and water impoundments, all of which need mechanized means of maintenance.

Send your comments by April 26, 2006 to:
Gary Slagel, Monument Manager
Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument
P.O. Box 1160
Lewistown, MT 59457

Email: monumentrmp@blm.gov

The complete draft RMP/EIS can be seen at: http://www.mt.blm.gov

Aviation is mentioned on pages XXVII, 101, 174, 226, 240, 255, 309, 320, 323, 393 & 479

The BLM public meetings have been rescheduled, beginning in Lewistown, MT on Feb. 21 and ending in Helena on March 14. Check BLM web site link found above for the complete schedule.

We in aviation have a unique opportunity to preserve six backcountry airstrips located in a unique part of the Northern Great Plains. Your help is critical. Take a few minutes of your time to send in your comments to the BLM. A written, personalized letter is preferred. Please, do not send form letters or cards. Even just a short letter or email supporting the airstrips as proposed in Alternative F, the Preferred Alternative, will help. The Montana Pilots’ Association has brought us to this point. Now, we need your help! Comments need to be in by April 26, 2006. Do not put this off. Comment now to save these unique backcountry, recreational airstrips.

Cow Creek Airstrip

This airstrip is 2500 feet long, elevation 3300 feet

The Knox Ridge airstrip

This airstrip is 2500 feet long and at an elevation of 3300 feet
The runway ends are marked with orange tires.

Left Coulee airstrip

This airstrip is 2000 feet long at an elevation of 3300 feet
It is orientated east and west and there is plenty of parking space.
The ridge top location provides for views in all directions.

These airstrips provide a great place to camp, hike, view wildlife and explore the unique geology of the area

Why We Support the Preferred Alternative and Tips on Effective Letter Writing (added 5th December 2005)

The draft RMP offers six management alternatives. Alternative F is the alternative preferred by the Bureau of Land Management planning team.

The Alternatives range from including no airstrips in the Monument to including all ten of the airstrips. Some alternatives include seasonal closures for wildlife considerations. The preferred Alternative F includes six of the ten airstrips. From aviation’s point of view, these are the six most desirable airstrips. Of the remaining four, two are along a dusty road with no solitude and are already overgrown, the third is only about one mile south of Black Butte North, and the fourth (Woodhawk) is on the south side of the river in the Wild and Scenic River Corridor, which further complicates its acceptance. The tenth strip, Woodhawk, was previously thought to be a trespass strip. New information verifies that Woodhawk was constructed and maintained by the BLM and the MPA supports its inclusion in the final resource management plan

The six airstrips in Alternative F are the longest of the airstrips and currently are in use. They are the most desirable from a recreational point of view. The BLM wants to avoid clusters of airstrips; hence three on the north side of the river are not in the Preferred Alternative. Each serves its locale as a trailhead and it is a long walk from one to another across rugged terrain.

The Recreational Airstrip Committee (RAC) of the MPA has worked diligently since July of 2002 to get us where we are today. The RAC provided the BLM with formal public comment in the form of a forty-page document that outlines all the aviation issues plus an environmental assessment to assist the Monument’s non-pilot planners to grasp the fact that aviation is a compatible use of the Monument. This document was submitted to the BLM with a cover letter from the MPA President. As new issues surfaced during the planning process, the committee furnished the BLM with further written information. Throughout this process the committee has been respectful and non-confrontational with everyone involved in the planning process, including those people belonging to special interest groups that oppose airstrips in the Monument.

The MPA position to support the six airstrips referenced in Alternative F of the draft RMP was adopted by the MPA Board of Directors on November 20, 2005. This approval refers to only those six airstrips and not to any other subject in the document.

How to Write Your Comments
1) Address your letter correctly. Identify your subject. The staff will then file your letter properly.

2) Identify yourself as a pilot. Do not mention membership in the MPA. Perhaps you are writing for yourself and your family.

3) Write the letter in your own words, in your own writing style.

4) If you hand write your letter, be neat. Someone else has to easily read it.

5) Be specific about what you are writing about; i.e. you support the BLM’s inclusion of six-airstrips in the Preferred Alternative.

6) Thank the BLM planning staff for including six airstrips in the Preferred Alternative F and request that they be a part of the final Monument Resource Management Plan.

7) Be brief and concise, but not terse.

8) Cite personal experiences. Have you ever needed to land at a backcountry airstrip due to weather changes or mechanical problems? Have you flown a young or elderly person to a backcountry airstrip that otherwise could not get there? Do you use the Missouri River as a flight corridor and would feel more secure knowing there are airstrips nearby in case of emergency?

9) What do you like to do with your family? Airplane camp, hike, etc. If you have a photo of your family camped with your airplane at a public lands airstrip, include that in the text of your letter.

10) Would you rather fly to a remote backcountry airstrip in the prairie region rather than the narrow mountain valleys of western Montana? Do you want a different educational experience for your passengers by camping in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument?

11) Do you currently volunteer for backcountry airstrip maintenance work? If so, mention your commitment to cooperative airstrip maintenance between the users and the Federal Land managers.

12) Above all, be polite. Public land managers are people, too, and deserve respectful treatment. Their decisions must be based on the law even if they disagree.

13) Be sure your address appears either at the top of the letter or below your signature. Ask to be placed on future mailing lists.

14) And lastly, if you wish to comment on another aviation part of the draft RMP (like float planes on the Missouri), make sure that those comments are a separate, stand-alone portion of your letter.

The number of comments received by the BLM is as important as the quality. Your family and friends should also be encouraged to write a short note of why they want to have the opportunity to fly to the Monument and enjoy the same experience that others enjoy, but using a different mode of transportation.

If you want further information, you can telephone any of the MPA members listed below:

Joe Roberts: 406-442-8891; John McKenna: 406-587-4746; Dan Prill: 406-736-5184
Chuck Jarecki: 406-883-2248; Mike Sidders: 406-582-7405

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