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Putting the "Public" Back In "Public Trust" BLM
has broken faith with the Public
BLM is not pursuing a Bullwhacker Access Road Process At the end of June I called
BLM, spoke with BLM Central Montana District Manager Stan Benes
about the Wilks Durfee Hills trespass investigation (still not
filed with the Federal Register and still "under investigation").
While I had him on the phone I inquired into the Bullwhacker
access road and was told that the Bullwhacker Road access is
"not a priority" for BLM at this time, contrary to his statement
in BLM's Sep. 2014 press release, "Public access to public lands
continues to be one of BLM Montana/Dakotas’ top priorities,”
said Stan Benes, the BLM Central Montana District Manager. "Our
charge in this particular situation is actually to restore the
access the public historically had for many decades." He explained
that they were a man down in the office, that there were other
priorities they were tending to, that they didnt have the finances
for a new road, at which point I reminded him that RMEF had
offered to contribute to a new road, as had others and even
construction. That was dismissed.
For those of you who think that BLM has actually followed through with a formal EIS process to build a road to re-establish the Bullwhacker access, you would be mistaken. BLM has not filed a Notice of Intent with the Federal Register that begins the formal process. I verified this in January with Mike Kania, but due to no linear time, memory or processing at that time, I forgot to alert the newsletter subscribers to this fact. I confirmed this again, this last Friday, when I checked back with Kania after the Wilks land proposal draft going out. All the scoping meetings were outside the formal process, were simply preliminary. So basically a year has passed and we have nothing to show for it. BLM has broken faith with the Public. This last Thursday night, July 9th, the Wilks sent out a draft BLM-Wilks Land Exchange Proposal that began making the rounds. I had been preparing for this and that was part of my documentation trip recently. The Wilks representative, Darryl James, had set up a private working group to discuss and promote their land exchange proposal. "This proposal reflects the shared interests of the Wilks’, the BLM and a broad array of landowner, sportsmen, conservation and recreation groups who have engaged in constructive dialogue in an attempt to satisfy as many needs and desires as possible, while still achieving the overall goal of the exchange." This remains to be seen. I have set up a webpage with a link to the draft proposal and key points that address the variety of issues with this situation and draft. BLM has broken faith with the Public/Wilks Brothers Land Exchange Proposal page The Public was told by BLM in good faith that, "The Bureau of Land Management... has begun the process required to reestablish road access into the Bullwhacker Coulee area of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument." " 'Public access to public lands continues to be one of BLM Montana/Dakotas’ top priorities,' said Stan Benes, the BLM Central Montana District Manager. 'Our charge in this particular situation is actually to restore the access the public historically had for many decades.' " "An environmental assessment is expected to be available by May. The goal is to complete the decision process in summer 2015." Please contact Bureau of Land Management State Director Jamie Connell jconnell@blm.gov , asking that the BLM repair this breach in the Public Trust, file the formal Notice of Intent with the Federal Register, to officially begin the EIS on reestablishing road access into the Bullwhacker Coulee area of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. |
13/07/2015 Enhancing
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