Karl Puckett

kpuckett@greatfallstribune.com

The Bureau of Land Management has formally begun investigating building a new road to restore access to 50,000 acres of public land in the Bullwhacker area in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Blaine County.

Historic public access to about 50,000 backcountry acres in the Bullwhacker area within Blaine County had been lost following a 2011 court decision declaring a portion of the Bullwhacker Road crossing private lands to be a private road.

The case is one of several in Montana in which private property interests and public access advocates are disagreeing over off-the-beaten paths that cross both private and public lands in en route to popular public hunting and fishing areas.

Restoring the access to the Bullwhacker is only being studied at this point, with a decision whether to proceed not expected until the summer of 2015. An environmental assessment will be completed.

Access remains closed for this hunting season.

Wilks Ranch Montana, owned by Texas billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks, bought the Bullwhacker-area property following the court's decision and proposed a land exchange with the agency to restore the access. But sportsmen objected because deal would have resulted in the BLM giving up popular hunting land in the Durfee Hills in Fergus County.

The BLM announced in August that it would no longer consider a land exchange with the Wilks brothers and would look into other others means to regain access to the Bullwhacker.

On Friday, the BLM said it would investigate four alternatives to re-establish road access into the drainage, restoring access to 50,000 acres of public land within the monument. Sportsmen's groups opposed to the land exchange had lobbied the BLM to a pursue a new access route bypassing the Wilks' property.

"It's a very popular area for hunting," said the BLM's Mike Kania, manager of the monument. "Montanans are very concerned about access to public lands. Many people have hunted here in the past. I've talked to quite a few. It changes the local hunting patterns primarily."

Building a new road on such a large and geographically unique landscape is not a simple project, he said.

"Where to locate a road, it's not straightforward," he said. "If we build a road, we want it to be the least impact possible."

It will involve building three to five miles of road, some of it crossing coulees. A bridge might be necessary. The current road is built on the spine of a ridge. The new road will need to be farther down the hillside.

How much it will cost to restore access isn't known yet, but it will surely be in the hundreds of thousands, Kania said.

"We're investigating access routes to see if it's viable," Kania said.

Hunters still can access the area by foot, horseback, boat or air, but access no longer is possible by vehicle, Kania said. Historically, most people drove into the area.

"It's a long walk," Kania said.

Bullwhacker Road is no longer public where it crosses private land a half mile south of Cow Island Trail, Kania said.

If a new road is constructed, the BLM will consider closing, rehabilitating or reclaiming existing roads in other areas to offset the disturbance in the Bullwhacker, the agency said.

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Karl Puckett at 406-791-1471, 800-438-6600 or kpuckett

@greatfallstribune.com. Twitter: @GFTrib_KPuckett.

What's next

A 60-day scoping period to gather public comments on what issues should be considered in the environmental assessment will begin with meetings tentatively scheduled Dec. 2 in Great Falls; Chinook, Dec. 3; and Lewistown, Dec. 4. For more information contact the BLM's Mike Kania at 406-538-1950. Send an email to blm_mt_public_access@blm.gov with recommendations on access options.