The Initiative Process
The Initiative Agreement Today
What will the Owyhee Initiative Protect?
Idaho's Owyhee Initiative
Where the remote corners of Idaho, Oregon and Nevada come together lies one of the most spectacular unprotected high deserts remaining in the United States - a landscape that truly characterizes the American West. The Owyhee - Bruneau Canyonlands region is a special place, where our history can touch our future. Sadly, it is also a landscape fraught with debate that for years has divided people along ideological lines throughout southwestern Idaho. Yet today, thanks to the hard work of concerned groups from all sides of the debate, there is an opportunity to safeguard the region's rich history and wild character, by protecting it for future generations to experience and enjoy, while supporting the region's traditional way-of-life.
Goal
Launched over seven years ago, the Owyhee Initiative is an ambitious effort to resolve some long-standing public land issues. At the invitation of the Owyhee County Commissioners, groups began meeting to see if a collaborative solution was possible for some of the contentious natural resource issues particular to this area. The groups participating in the initiative which include ranchers, conservationists, county officials, recreationists, and others have used the following goal as their starting point:
To develop and implement a landscape-scale program in Owyhee County that preserves the natural processes that create and maintain a functioning, unfragmented landscape supporting and sustaining a flourishing community of human, plant and animal life, that provides for economic stability by preserving livestock grazing as an economically viable use, and that provides for protection of cultural resources.
History of Owyhee County
The Owyhees are a vital part of America's heritage and the history of southern Idaho. Unique arrays of fossils are found here, from Saber-toothed Salmon to Pleistocene Wolverines and Scimitar-toothed Cats. The unique geology of the region includes deep gorges carved by the Owyhee, Bruneau and Jarbidge Rivers, creating one of the largest concentrations of exposed rhyolite canyons in the world.
In this high, lonely desert, homesteaders scratched out a living or went bust while Native Americans clashed with the westward push of settlement along the Oregon Trail. Their stories are tied to this landscape. With nearly 3,000 cultural and historic sites, Owyhee County contains the richest concentration of archeological sites in Idaho.
Recent history has been equally dramatic centering on heated battles between different interest groups over management of the area. More than three-quarters of the almost 5 million acres in Owyhee County are public land, administered by the Bureau of Land Management. When changes are proposed for use and enjoyment of public lands, they get a lot of attention.
The first major proposal came from the U.S Air Force, to expand its training operations from Mountain Home Air Base to the south in Owyhee County - to include live bombs dropped on public land. The initial proposal triggered 10 years of public controversy, ending in 1998 with a scaled back electronic combat range over large areas of Owyhee County.
Controversy next centered on the effort to convince President Bill Clinton to declare a 2.7 million-acre Owyhee National Monument. In his last days in office, President Clinton highlighted the worthiness of an Owyhee National Monument but did not include it in his final monument designations.
Many efforts to protect the Owyhees over the last decade have been fueled by the impacts of livestock grazing on this arid and fragile landscape. These battles have drawn ever-greater attention, and various forms of public process, including the courts, have increased pressure and oversight, and in some cases, reductions in livestock grazing. These battles have kept many parties involved in the Owyhees at serious odds.
Today, for the first time in what has been years of fighting and debating, all the parties involved are sincerely working together to come up with real solutions. Dozens of one-on-one and larger group meetings have taken place to sort through wilderness issues, livestock grazing and recreational use. The group researched and distributed language from past wilderness legislation addressing fish and game management, military training, and other activities. Numerous aerial overflights of the Owyhees have been organized for County Commissioners, ranchers, recreationists, and congressional staff. Members of the Initiative have attended numerous field trips to look at grazing practices, prescribed burns, and candidate wilderness areas. While a final proposal has yet to be completed, significant progress has been made including an open and honest direct dialogue between diverse interests regarding wilderness, wild and scenic rivers, livestock grazing, landscape conservation, and off-road vehicle and recreational use.
Process of Current Initiative
The Owyhee Initiative has focused five key areas, including:
Establishment of an Owyhee Initiative Board of Directors: The Board will oversee, on an advisory basis, and monitor administration and implementation of the Owyhee Initiative.
Establishment of a Peer Science Review Process: In order to equitably achieve the purposes of the Owyhee Initiative, a process will be established to provide for peer-review of certain proposed actions by the Bureau of Land Management by resource management specialists.
Conservation and Research Center: Under the direction of the Board of Directors and in cooperation with partners, the Center will develop, fund and implement an Owyhee Initiative landscape-scale program to coordinate, review and recommend landscape conservation and research activities.
Wilderness and Wild & Scenic Rivers: Legislation will resolve the current status of Wilderness Study Areas (WSA's) by designating some wilderness and releasing others to multiple use management. Significant wilderness and wild and scenic rivers will be protected through this process.
Travel and Recreation: The Bureau of Land Management will complete and enforce transportation plans for public lands in Owyhee County. The transportation plans will include a multiple use trail system that will provide a wide range of recreational opportunities and experiences for all users. Off-highway vehicles, will be limited to designated routes and trails through the public planning process. The vast majority of Owyhee County will be closed to cross-country motorized vehicle use.
The Initiative Agreement Today
Starting from the five focus areas listed above, the various groups agreed to support more protections for important plateau country located between and surrounding major canyons; wild and scenic river designation for the rivers; release of some wilderness study areas to non-wilderness status; and end the vast majority of cross-country off-road vehicle travel in the county -- limiting motorized recreation to existing and designated trails. The groups have also initially agreed to a process for peer-review of some of the science which the Bureau of Land Management uses for its management decisions; the creation of some "cow free" wilderness areas and an agreement that the county will start a process to withdraw R.S. 2477 rights-of-way assertions within areas designated as wilderness. Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) used the Owyhee Initiative agreement as the basis for legislation introduced into Congress August 3rd, 2006, and reintroduced on April 9, 2008 as SB 2833, the Owyhee Public Land Management Act of 2008. The bill will now go through the legislative process in Washington DC be passed into law.
For more information, feel free to contact any one of the people on our contact page.
