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Zinke: Upper Missouri River Breaks Monument ‘Likely’ Will Not be Changed

Gov. Steve Bullock sent a letter to Zinke last week asking him to keep the Breaks monument unchanged

By Dillon Tabish
Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke speaks at the Western Governors' Association annual meeting in Whitefish. Beacon file photo

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says changes to Montana’s Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument will probably not happen.

The Great Falls Tribune reports Zinke announced Tuesday the he “likely” won’t recommend changes to the 586-square-mile (1,520-square-kilometer) monument that President Bill Clinton created in 2001 using the Antiquities Act.

Zinke has been acting out President Donald Trump’s directive to review all monuments larger than 156 square miles (400 square kilometers) that were created since 1996. Trump called for the review in response to past presidents’ use of executive orders to create national monuments.

Zinke says in the case of the Breaks monument, he’d rather not “open a wound that has already healed.”

Gov. Steve Bullock sent a letter to Zinke last week asking him to keep the Breaks monument unchanged.

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