We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
In February 2020, the APR did open the Antelope Creek Campground. Just off Highway 191 north of the Missouri River's Fred Robinson Bridge, the new campground offers tent sites, electric RV sites, and rental cabins.
Another unique outdoor experience offered by APR is a hut-to-hut system completed in 2018. Located in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, the two huts, which can accommodate up to nine people in four bunk rooms, are priced at $125 a night.
Although the infrastructure and disturbance caused by that hut system and campground likely account for more than the area has previously seen, the UPOM is more concerned about the displacement of what they refer to as “thousands of Montanans who live in the communities that the APR wants to wipe off the map.”
According to their website, the UPOM is fighting to stop the APR because the APR “wants preferential treatment for the public grazing permits they control. They have requested to graze public land year-round, which no cattle or sheep operation has the freedom to do. Ranchers have cooperated for years with BLM and CMR to establish best practices for grazing—APR’s plan would ignore those, which could do a great deal of damage to the public’s land.”
In December 2007, the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Commission took an unprecedented step by passing a tentative proposal to limit archery elk permits in the Missouri River Breaks Elk Management Unit and 24 other hunting districts. Despite opposition from outfitters, landowners, the businesses sector, local governments, and non-resident hunters, the Commission virtually ignored public comment and voted to adopt the limited permits. When those in attendance at the public meeting saw the majority of the public’s efforts ignored by the Commission in favor of appeasing special interest groups, the UPOM was born.
UPOM has partnered with farmers and ranchers in APR’s target area to educate communities about the risk APR poses to the agriculture industry and to hunting rights. Anyone interested in supporting their effort or in purchasing a sign is encouraged to contact Deanna Robbins (406-464-2281), Laura Boyce (406-462-5691), or Coke Knox (406-462-5668).
APR also accepts tax-deductible donations.
Where the APR sees tourism opportunity by protecting the “natural wonders that allow people and wildlife to thrive,” the UPOM sees a destruction of the economic vitality and financial workings of the entire area.
Informational cards printed by the Petroleum County community reveal statistics that suggest 86% of the land the APR plans to “protect” for public use are already accessible public lands where wildlife exists. “Ranchers care for the prairie; they manage native grasslands in a way that supports ecological diversity, including wildlife and cattle,” the card reads. “These people and their operations also support the local economy and the local community.”
An article from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Newsroom, “Saving our native prairies: A landscape conservation approach” further states that in the mission to save our prairies and the unique and diverse wildlife they support: “Livestock grazing, under the right conditions, can encourage growth of warm-season grasses.”
The situation may simply come down to how an individual defines the glory of the west. On this issue, Facebook carried the following post on August 25:
“Yesterday on the Missouri River, a tourist on a float trip was injured and needed medical attention in an area many miles from a road. Volunteers from the Winifred Rural Fire Department and the Winifred Ambulance drove into the Breaks, launched a boat in the river, and traveled about 15 miles downriver to treat and load the patient into the boat. We transported her to the ambulance, drove her to the hospital, and six hours later returned to our jobs as ranchers.
“For those who think that tourism and wildlife preservation are more noble uses for this land, I ask you this: when your goal of eliminating agriculture from 3.5 million acres of Montana is accomplished, who will rescue the recreationalists whom you target with your tourism advertisements? There were three ranchers in that boat yesterday. If we're eliminated, so is our community, the very community that works hard to produce food for the world, sustains wildlife populations on our land, and pulls together to help each other and to help strangers in times of need. I'm happy to share the beauty of this country with those who come to visit, and as an EMT I will not hesitate to help someone in need, but I hope the visitors to this area think carefully before they support the organizations that seek to eliminate our way of life.”
