BLM Selects Monument Manager to Lead North Central Montana District

LEWISTOWN, Mont. – Staff and leaders welcomed a familiar face as the new district manager of the Bureau of Land Management’s North Central Montana District, Sept. 22.

Zane Fulbright, previously the manager of the district’s Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, brings a wealth of varied experience to apply to his new responsibilities as district manager, which include about 3.5 million surface acres of BLM-administered lands and about 5.8 million sub-surface federal acres within the district’s 15-county area.

Fulbright has served with the BLM Montana/Dakotas since 2005, primarily as the Lewistown Field Office/UMRBNM archaeologist and monument manager. He undertook a variety of detail positions for other BLM offices as acting administrative officer for the Central Montana and Hi-Line Districts, federal preservation officer for the BLM headquarters in Washington D.C., Alaska’s Eastern Interior field manager, Miles City field manager, and Montana/Dakotas deputy preservation officer. Since 2019, Fulbright served as the Manager of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, supervising staff in Lewistown, Havre and Fort Benton, Montana.

Zane’s extensive knowledge and deep-rooted connection to the area make him an exceptional choice to lead the North Central Montana District,” said BLM Montana/Dakotas State Director Sonya Germann. “His commitment to stewardship and his understanding of the region’s unique heritage will be invaluable as we continue to manage and sustain the health of our public lands for future generations.”

Before joining the BLM, he worked 15 years as an archeologist for the U.S. Forest Service’s Umatilla National Forest in Washington and Oregon, the Nez Perce and Idaho Panhandle National Forests in Idaho, and the Lewis & Clark and Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forests in Montana. During that time, he completed a temporary assignment documenting the historic homesteads along the BLM’s Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River.

“When I completed that assignment in 1998, I told my wife (Janelle) that if a job in my career field ever opened up in Lewistown, I would be applying,” Fulbright said. “I was fascinated with the central Montana history and landscape, and its archeological and paleontological richness. I grew up near Lewistown (Great Falls), and it just felt like central Montana is where I should be – it feels like home. I’m incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to further my career experience and continue stewarding public lands right here in Lewistown.”

Since moving to Lewistown in 2005, the Fulbright family raised their four children and immersed themselves in community schools, church activities and volunteering.

Fulbright earned a Bachelor of Arts in history with an anthropology minor from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. He went on to earn a Master of Arts in history from Montana State University in Bozeman, with an emphasis on the role of mining, railroads and homesteading on the settlement of the Castle Mountains in central Montana. He completed the BLM Emerging Leaders program in 2011.

– BLM –