Published: Sunday, May 26, 2024
Credit: Kevin Bidwell, Pexels
One of the largest expanses of unspoiled wilderness in the United States is located just southwest of Boise.
Owyhee Canyonlands is the largest wilderness area unprotected in the American West. It features stunning red gulches and winding rivers, as well as a lunar-like landscape, where a volcanic caldera 600 times bigger than Mount St. Helens once erupted.
Locals may have thought that the Owyhees was the best-kept local secret, offering a wilderness experience of national park quality without the tourists.
Advocates claim that those days are over. They say the secret is out and that the consequences of not enacting a federal protection could be irreversible. Even those who are most skeptical about government regulation admit that the Owyhees face unprecedented changes.
As the population of the Treasure Valley has increased, so too have the number of visitors to the Owyhees. According to the nonprofit Friends of the Owyhee, the Lower Owyhee Canyon has seen 250,000 visitors annually on average over the last seven years. Leslie Gulch was featured in a viral video on social media that attracted more than 21,000,000 views.
Advocates claim that the influx of people, along with unregulated recreational activities, invasive species and mining claims, could irrevocably harm the beauty of this 7 million-acre wilderness. The Owyhees are located 60 miles southwest from Boise, and extend past the Nevada/Oregon state border. Only 5% of this public land is permanently protected. The majority of it falls under the Bureau of Land Management. The stakeholders want this to change.
The National Wildlife Federation and Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands invited the Idaho Statesman last month to take a tour of the Owyhees to get an insider’s view of the deserts and plants, as well as the farmland, wildlife and wildlife habitats. They also wanted to give the Idaho Statesman a look at the conservation groups’ plans to protect the land.
The protection push has seen a decade of ups-and-downs
Since nearly a decade, advocates have been fighting for the protection of this land. In 2015, several groups petitioned the former president Barack Obama to declare the Owyhees a national landmark.
According to Ryan Houston, Executive Director at the Oregon Natural Desert Association, the efforts seemed promising up until January 2016. Then, the armed occupation by Ammon Bundy of the nearby Malheur National Wildlife Refuge made environmental protection in the area a contentious issue for politicians. Bundy’s struggle against federal land regulations was met with sympathy and support from certain factions.
In 2019, local ranchers, business leaders and environmental groups joined forces to secure the protections both sides felt were necessary. The coalition worked with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon to draft the Malheur Community Empowerment for Owyhee Act, which was passed last year. The bill would establish a wilderness designation, with local ranchers and environmental groups overseeing the protection of a million acres in the Owyhees.
Conservationists are concerned by the bill’s inaction. The bill has not moved since it passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last December. Aaron Kindle is the director of sports advocacy at National Wildlife Federation. He said that environmental campaigns can make lawmakers nervous, particularly during an election year.
Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands is an alliance consisting of at least fourteen different groups. They have now made their next move, asking President Joe Biden for the designation of the Owyhee Canyonlands a national park.
“Conservation is an interesting thing for us, who have been doing it for a while,” Kindle said. “I think that right now, people know that things can be a bit dysfunctional in Congress. “You have to be creative to find new ways to accomplish these tasks.”
Ranchers from Malheur County in Oregon, where a large number of Owyhees live, are still sceptical about too many restrictions, and they remain wary of monument status.
Elias Eiguren is a fourth generation Malheur County Rancher and treasurer of Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition. This group worked with conservationists to create Wyden’s Bill. It was nearly a decade before the group came together to speak out against Owyhees being declared a national park. Although advocates claim they want a plan to keep ranchers rights intact, Eiguren says it is hard to believe that this will happen since his family’s livelihood relies on their approximately 500 cattle being able to access Bureau of Land Management land for grazing.
Eiguren, who spoke to the Idaho Statesman over the phone, said that there has been a long history between the two of us and the environmental groups we work with. “Over the last two or three years, the relationship hasn’t really been good,” he explained. “They’ve taken us to court and filed lawsuits.”
Even those who are part of the Owyhee basin Stewardship admit that the Owyhees lands are changing at a rapid pace, and there is a need for protection. Eiguren says that as he has aged, he has seen more tourists, wildfires, invasive weeds, and less wildlife.
Eiguren stated, “There wasn’t anyone out there when I grew up.” “We never saw anyone. There were only a few cattle ranchers. In the summer, vehicles are seen three to four times per week. Convoys, tour groups and other people are coming through. It’s changed a lot.”
It’s not impossible that the Owyhees could become a national park. Biden’s America the Beautiful Initiative, a billion-dollar initiative, was launched in 2022 through an executive directive. The executive order, according to the White House, aims to support local conservation efforts throughout the country, with the goal of conserving and restoring 30% of U.S. land and water by 2030.
In the last year, the President has expanded and created two national monuments.
The New York Times reported that John Podesta – President Biden’s Senior Advisor on Climate Change – said in April Biden had preserved more land than Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
Conservationists are concerned that if Biden fails to win reelection, Republican Donald Trump may be less willing to protect the Owyhees – or any land. Trump reduced Bears Ears National Monument, a 1.3 million-acre area in Utah, by 85% less than a month after Obama created it. He also cut the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by 47% in Utah in 2017. Biden restored all monuments by 2021.
Kindle stated, “No matter who is president or who is in Congress, there’s still value here.” We will continue to promote conservation of this land, no matter who is in power.
Owyhees Native Wildlife Threatened
Skyler Vold is the greater sage-grouse expert for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He gets up early each spring to watch the dance of the sage-grouse. He locates a lek, an annual sage-grouse breeding site, and trains his scope to the shimmying sage-grouse males.
Vold brought the Statesman early in the morning on April 23 to an Owyhees’ lek. Vold counted a total of 22 birds, a record number for the lek. This was incredibly exciting for anyone who knows that bird numbers have decreased by 80% in the last 50 years. The Owyhees region is one of only six remaining strongholds for greater sage grouse in the world.
Vold says that if the sage-grouse are not doing well, then everyone should be concerned. These birds serve as an “indicator” species, akin to a canary that is a part of the coal mine. Vold says that if the sage-grouse suffer, then other species of high desert in the region are probably suffering as well.
Owyhees is also home to more than 1,200 plant species, including 26 that are unique in the world.
Vold stated that it was Vold’s responsibility to protect the habitats of these native species. Vold said, “We’ve messed this ecosystem up and it’s now our job to restore it to its former state.”
Fire and grass are two of the greatest threats to the sage seas in Owyhees. In recent years, the Western United States experienced an unprecedented number wildfires. Some of these have burned across the Owyhees and left splotches.
Normaly, the sage would gradually regrow as it has done for centuries. Cheatgrass, a invasive species native in Eurasia, the Mediterranean and Asia, has made this nearly impossible. Cheatgrass grows quickly after a fire. It hoards the limited water in the soil, preventing native plants that are slower to grow from receiving the necessary hydration.
Wildlife advocates claim that federal protection is necessary to prevent the weed forever altering the landscape.
Eiguren says that medusahead is a plant that chokes ranchers more than cheatgrass. Cows love it. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, animals won’t eat mature medusahead plants. In fact, one study showed that the plant reduced grazing capacity by as much as 80%.
National Wildlife Federation says that either form of protection – legislative or executive – would create a vegetation plan aimed at managing the spread invasive species, and provide more resources, than could be provided under BLM management.
Tribal leaders want regulation on mining and recreation
Idahoans who have lived in the state for a long time may remember a period before the population explosion brought so many new residents to within spitting range of the Owyhees.
Even further back in time, the cultural memory of Native American tribes is rooted.
Buster Gibson, Director of Nevada’s Fish and Game Department, for the Shoshone and Paiute Tribes, told The Statesman, “That’s old territory.” “A lot our battlegrounds and burial sites as well as our prayer sites are all connected to that area.” The reservation itself is not the only thing that matters.
Gibson and Reginald Sope – councilman of the Shoshone Paiute of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, which straddles Idaho and Nevada state lines south of Boise – said that one of the main reasons they support the creation of a national park is to stop new mining claims.
In 1863, gold deposits were found in the Owyhees. The Owyhees are open for new mining claims under its current status. This door would close under Wyden’s legislation, or as a National Monument. According to Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands, protected areas would be subjected to a mineral withdraw that would prevent any new claims. Existing claims would also be grandfathered.
Last year, Australia’s Jindalee Resources said that their surveys indicated the land held the largest lithium deposit of the United States. The claim is located in McDermitt Caldera, Nevada. It is about 10 miles away from the West Little Owyhee River, in Oregon.
Gibson and Sope are concerned about the impact mining can have on the health of the tribe and the land.
Gibson stated that “it might seem like there are a lot mining claims around right now.” “But it could triple in 20 years.”
The Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition offers a nuanced view. Eiguren noted that Malheur was the poorest county of Oregon, and mining could benefit the local economy. However, he has concerns.
Eiguren stated, “We need to give our local economy a boost.” “At the very same time, agriculture is the foundation of our economy, and it revolves around our water and land resources. We would not want to contaminate this in an irreparable or long-term manner.
Gibson and Sope would also like to see a more regulated recreation industry in the region. Currently, recreational vehicles can be driven anywhere in Owyhees.
Gibson called it “desecration” when people drive dirt bikes on sacred sites or post pictures of tribal artifacts that they have brought back from the Owyhees.
Gibson stated, “We would not go looking for artifacts at cemeteries.” It would be a shame to do that but it is allowed on our land. We don’t have much of a voice. “We don’t have the resources.”
Gibson hopes more protections will be made to preserve the land so that future generations can take it out and become Owyhees.
Gibson explained that “when they show you the grave of a loved one or something significant to you, you will always remember that as a kid.” “When you return to this world, you remember it as if that was the only place clean you could ever imagine.”
The Idaho Statesman in 2024 Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.