Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument

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This article is about the location. For the film, see The Missouri Breaks.

Upper Missouri River National Monument
IUCN Category III (Natural Monument)

Location	Chouteau, Fergus, Blaine, and Phillips counties, Montana, USA
Nearest city	Great Falls, MT
Coordinates	47°47′00″N 109°00′77″W / 47.783333, -109.02139
Area	377,000 acres (1,530 km²)
Established	January 17, 2001
Visitors	63,512 (in 2002)
Governing body	U.S. Bureau of Land Management

The Missouri Breaks is located in central Montana, U.S. and is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management under the full title of Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Called "The Breaks" by locals, it is a series of badland areas characterized by rock outcroppings, steep bluffs and grassy plains. Created on January 17, 2001, it encompasses 377,000 acres (1,530 km²), most of which were already managed by the U.S. Government. The adjacent Missouri River was designated a Wild and Scenic River in 1976 and forms a western boundary while the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge is to the east. The Breaks country was a model for many of the paintings done by painter Charles M. Russell.

French trappers found the area in the late 18th century peopled by Native American tribes such as the Blackfoot, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux Assiniboine, Gros Ventre (Atsina), Crow tribe, Plains Cree, and Plains Ojibwa. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through the breaks in 1805 and were the first to document the region through notes and drawings, and their sighting and documentation of bighorn sheep in the breaks region was the first time this species was recorded in North America by white explorers. Much of the Breaks region has remained as it was when Lewis and Clark's party first saw it. "The confluence of the Judith and Missouri Rivers was the setting for important peace councils in 1846 and 1855. In 1877, the Nez Perce crossed the Missouri and entered the Breaks country in their attempt to escape to Canada. The Cow Island Skirmish occurred in the Breaks and was the last encounter prior to the Nez Perce' surrender to the U.S. Army at the Battle of Bear Paw just north of the monument." [1]

Missouri River carved the breaks into the Montana landscape

A full management plan is still under development due to various private inholdings and lease agreements between private citizens and the federal government. While conservationists would like to see some of the Breaks monument lands become designated as Wilderness, local ranchers and farmers, under long standing lease agreements with the federal government who graze upwards of 10,000 head of cattle annually within the new monument, are concerned that the monument status may adversely affect their livelihood and the economies of local towns. Under the proposed management plan from the Department of the Interior, although the resources of the monument will be given better protection, "currently permitted livestock grazing, hunting, fishing, and similar activities will generally not be affected, nor will private property (approximately 81,911 acres [331 km²]) and state land (approximately 38,722 acres [157 km²]) within the boundary of the proposed monument, as well as other valid existing rights." [2]The need for grazing reform is great. The BLM reports that past grazing management has resulted in almost complete elimination of important woody shrub species such as red-osier dogwood, chockecherry, serviceberry, currant, and gooseberry - all of which are highly important as food sources for mammals and birds. Another grazing related problem is the impending demise of riverside cottonwood forests. Presently almost all of the cottonwood trees along the river germinated from seed in the 1880's, before grazing was occurring on the river. As cattle grazing became an entrenched use on the river, cattle have systematically eliminated virtually all young cottonwoods, leaving no replacement trees to take the place of the old and dying mature trees. As a result the BLM (in its draft Resource Management Plan document) predicts that canoers on the river will - in the near future - need to carry artificial shade with them, since there will be no cottonwood forests left to provide shade.

The Breaks is home to at least 60 mammal species and hundreds of bird species. Willows and shrubs are found along the Missouri River banks while sagebrush and short grass prairie are dominant elsewhere.