Judge rules against Breaks monument lawsuit

A federal judge has ruled in favor of a management plan for an area that has stirred controversy since at least the 1970s.

Judge Sam E. Haddon of Great Falls ruled that a management plan designed by the U. S. Bureau of Land Management properly balances multiple uses in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

Lawsuits filed by eight groups including the Wilderness Society, the Montana Wilderness Association and Friends of the Missouri Breaks Monument had claimed that the management plan had not gone far enough to protect and preserve the scenic, historic and cultural aspects of the r...