LEWISTOWN, Mont. – Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument staff welcomed a new manager to coordinate and supervise programs and operations throughout the monument’s 378,000 acres of public lands, officials with the Bureau of Land Management’s North Central Montana District announced, today.
Becky Cooper joined the BLM from the Bureau of Reclamation’s Bend Field Office where she served for almost three years as an outdoor recreation planner, providing programmatic oversight and management for all Reclamation recreation programs in central and western Oregon. Her career experience encompasses all realms of visitor services including interpretation, education, volunteers, community engagement and partnerships, including service agreements, contracts, grants and interagency acquisitions, and integrating these with other natural resource programs across state and national public lands.
Cooper began a full-time career in public lands management in 1998 with the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) as its northwest Oregon area recreation specialist, in Forest Grove with developing long-range recreation management plans for two state forests. This experience led to a position as the Astoria District recreation coordinator, managing the recreation program there.
She first served with a federal land-management agency in 2002 as a recreation technician for the BLM in Lakeview, Oregon. From there Cooper served with the BLM in a variety of roles and locations in Oregon until 2004 when she worked as a park ranger with the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation (IDPR) in Cascade.
Cooper ventured into the newspaper industry from 2007 to 2009 as general manager and graphic designer for the Long Valley Advocate in Cascade, Idaho. She also owned and operated a freelance graphic design business there, offering full-spectrum marketing services, with an emphasis on environmental education publications.
In 2010, she returned to federal service with the BLM in Wenatchee, Washington, as an outdoor recreation planner. Opportunity knocked in 2011, and she became a natural resource specialist managing a complex recreation program for the U.S. Forest Service’s Emmett Ranger District, Boise National Forest, in Idaho.
She left the Pacific Northwest in 2015 for a position as supervisory natural resource specialist for the Forest Service’s Shasta McCloud Management Unit of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California where she served until 2022. In this role, some of the departments she was responsible for included the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center, Youth Conservation Corps., special forest products, 130 miles of
national non-motorized trails (including the National Scenic Pacific Crest Trail), and a snowgrooming trail system. She also played a vital role on interdisciplinary teams for integrated vegetation management plans for timber sales and restoration projects representing recreation and scenery resources.
Cooper earned a bachelor’s degree in resource recreation and tourism in 1998 from the University of Idaho in Moscow and studied graphic design with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. During her college years, she worked seasonally for IDPR and ODF in recreation support roles.
“I’m beyond excited to be returning to the BLM. The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument offers everything a public lands manager could dream of – a highly energetic, skilled and knowledgeable team, a purposeful mission and strikingly beautiful landscapes that are deeply connected to our nation’s history and culture,” said Cooper, who will manage the monument from the BLM office in Lewistown, Montana.
Cooper characterized the monument as “a jewel within the central Montana prairie landscape,” offering so many public benefits – individual outdoor recreation experiences at campgrounds and parks, river access to some of the most unique geological features noted in the Lewis and Clark Expedition journals, permits for commercial outfitters, a top-notch interpretive center in Fort Benton, and so much more.
“I feel fortunate to be able to honor my lifelong commitment to stewarding and caring for the nation’s special-designation public lands right here,” Cooper said.
Cooper’s extensive career with public lands organizations, particularly those with recreation missions, made her the top pick for monument manager.
“Becky is a proven leader who brings a strong background in multiple-resource management, visitor services, and collaborative engagement with stakeholders, partners and tribes – all of which are essential to managing a national monument with complex resources and a popular recreation program,” said BLM North Central Montana District Manager Zane Fulbright. “She also understands and shares the high value Montanans place on public lands, public access and the history of this region.”
The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument was established by Presidential Proclamation on January 17, 2001, and contains a spectacular array of biological, geological and historical objects of interest.
From its Missouri Breaks Interpretive Center in Fort Benton and downstream to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, the monument spans 149 miles of the Upper Missouri River, the adjacent Breaks country, and portions of Arrow Creek, Antelope Creek and the Judith River. The monument includes six wilderness study areas, the Cow Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern, segments of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the Nez Perce National Historic Trail, a watchable wildlife area and the Missouri Breaks Back Country Byway. In 1976, Congress designated the Missouri River segment and corridor in this area a National Wild and Scenic River.
The area has remained largely unchanged in the nearly 200 years since Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled through it on their epic journey. Within the monument visitors can float the river, fish, hike, hunt, drive for pleasure, find a little solitude, enjoy a sense of exploration in a remote setting or simply marvel at the variety of natural beauty.
For more information, visit the monument’s webpage.
