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Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have reintroduced a bill to protect more than 1 million acres of rugged wilderness in the Owyhee Canyonlands, while also giving ranchers more flexibility on grazing permits and transferring land in trust to the Burns Paiute Tribe.
At the same time, the Bureau of Land Management is preparing to finalize its management plan for more than 4 million acres across southeastern Oregon. The BLM plans include protections for more than 400,000 acres of lands with wilderness characteristics, while still allowing off-road vehicles on more than 40,000 acres near the town of Vale.
The dual-track efforts to provide certainty and protection in the remote areas of the high desert highlight the challenges and opportunities of cooperative land use planning. Ranchers, hunters, and conservation groups have all praised the bill and the BLM plans.
The Wyden/Merkley bill would formally recognize the Owyhee Basin Stewardship Council, which would be funded to work on projects in partnership with federal agenceis and private landowners.
BLM Restoration Landscapes: Yanawant and Color Country
Look West is highlighting 21 projects funded by BLM's $161 million Restoration Landscapes program. Today's projects are the adjacent Yanawant landscape in Arizona, where restoration investments will restore habitat for threatened and endangered species and reduce fuel loads; and Utah's Color Country, where the Mojave Desert, Colorado Plateau, and Central Basin and Range converge, creating an ecosystem with plant species that exist nowhere else on earth. The two landscapes will receive more than $15 million in restoration funding.
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The BLM has an opportunity to safeguard some of Oregon’s best hunting areas and wildlife habitat through these land-use plans, and do it in a balanced way.... Proper management that includes conservation measures such as what’s proposed helps ensure that our valued hunting heritage, outdoor traditions, and way of life can be enjoyed by future generations.”
