Top Line: The White House is very interested in protecting Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands as a national monument before the end of Biden’s first administration. However, President Biden won’t proceed without the all-clear from Oregon’s two US senators. Your help needed. Now.
Figure 1. Leslie Gulch, somewhat protected by the BLM’s area of critical environmental concern designation. This and most ACECs are open to mining. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (Mark Darnell).
There is no place on Earth like Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands. The vast area of land, mostly administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), ought to be protected for the benefit of this and future generations of Oregonians and other Americans. Such protection could come either by Act of Congress or by presidential proclamation. At this political moment in 2024, the former is highly problematic while the latter could be highly probable—if US Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley tell the White House to hop to it.
Let’s explore the place, the polls, the politics, and the process of saving Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands in 2024‚ which is soon to be half over.
Figure 2. The Owyhee Canyonlands, the largest conservation opportunity in the American West. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (J. Davis).
The Place
Covering millions of acres of sagebrush, river canyons, and geologic wonders, the Owyhee Canyonlands is the largest conservation opportunity in the American West.
Revered as “Oregon’s Grand Canyon,” these canyonlands expose more than 65 million years of geological history and volcanism, treating awestruck visitors to a palette of vermillion hues, chocolatey browns, and olive greens.
The Owyhee Canyonlands is defined by the Owyhee River and its tributaries, a watershed that encompasses more than 11,000 square miles.
The Owyhee Canyonlands includes thousands of square miles of rocky and riparian habitats and undulating Sagebrush Sea that support more than 1,200 species of plants, including at least 26 endemic plants that occur nowhere else in the world.
This stunning ecosystem is home to hundreds of wildlife species, including pronghorn, mule deer, Rocky Mountain elk, and California bighorn sheep; cougars, coyotes, badgers, and golden eagles; redband trout and Lahontan cutthroat trout; and greater sage-grouse and at least 150 other bird species.
As the original homelands for Northern Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock tribes, the Owyhee Canyonlands records at least 13,000 years of human history in the region, evinced by countless and irreplaceable cultural artifacts and sites that remain sacred to Indigenous peoples today.
The Owyhee Canyonlands is considered among the largest, wildest regions in the lower 48 states, offering boundless opportunities for recreation and preserving some of the darkest night skies in the nation.
The Owyhee Canyonlands is renowned for its unparalleled recreational opportunities.
Adventurous visitors enjoy the Owyhee for hunting, angling, hiking, camping, river rafting, wildlife watching, star gazing, and exploration of the region’s wildlands.
—adapted from the Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands website
Map 1. Designated wilderness (dark green, all in Idaho for now), wilderness study areas (medium green), lands with wilderness characteristics (LWCs) that are somewhat protected by the BLM (light green), fully unprotected LWCs (parallel light green diagonal lines), lands proposed in S.1890 for protection as wilderness (within the black outline), other BLM lands (tan). Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands.
Figure 3. Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands are very geological. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (Mark Darnell).
The Polls
The Protect the Owyhee folks commissioned a statewide poll by the same firm that candidates Wyden and Merkley use. The poll results (with a ±3.46 percent margin of error) were stunning:
• On the initial ask, 60 percent of Oregonians said they would support the president in protecting the Owyhee Canyonlands as a national monument, even though only 13 percent were even aware of any proposals to protect the Owyhee Canyonlands in Oregon.
• After those being polled were informed of the case for the national monument (the factual and philosophical case that enviros are making), support rose to between 71 and 75 percent, depending on how the question was asked.
• After those being polled were informed of the likely factually false case that might be outlined against the national monument (the case opponents would make even though such claims are demonstrably untrue), support was still 4 percent higher at 64 percent than when those polled were initially asked the question.
To put it in one perspective, neither Wyden nor Merkley has ever been elected to the Senate with 64 percent of the vote (although Wyden came close one time in six, but that was two decades ago).
Figure 4. The dark sky in the Owyhee Canyonlands. I would argue that this should be considered an object of both scientific and historical interest under the Antiquities Act. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (AJ Carter).
The Politics
The national, regional, statewide, and local support for protecting Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands is quite impressive and is continuing to grow. Besides the usual suspects, there are many unusual supporters, most especially at the local level (see below). A complete list of supporters can be found on the Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands website.
Nationally
Presidents, at least Democratic ones of late, love proclaiming national monuments, which are exercises of presidential power (albeit delegated by Congress) to do good things that are quite popular nationally and contribute toward the legacy of the president.
Figure 5. Boaters floating the Owyhee River, which is a unit of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. While recreation cannot be a purpose of a presidentially proclaimed national monument, it certainly is a by-product. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (John Aylward).
Regionally
The modern political realities of presidentially proclaimed national monuments in the American West are as follows:
1. They are done by Democratic presidents in states represented by two Republican US senators (for example, Utah).
2. They are done by Democratic presidents in states represented by two Democratic US senators who want the president to act (for example, California, Colorado, New Mexico).
3. They are not done by Democratic presidents in states represented by a Democratic senator who wants the president not to act (for example, Montana).
I use “Democratic” intentionally. The last Republican president to significantly and constructively use the Antiquities Act was George W. Bush. Before that it was Herbert Hoover. After that it was Donald J. Trump, who tried to dismantle three very large national monuments, two in Utah and one in the Atlantic Ocean.
Figure 6. Hiking in the Owyhee Canyonlands. While recreation cannot be a purpose of a presidentially proclaimed national monument, it certainly is a by-product. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (Jim Oleachea).
Statewide
Oregon’s two Democratic US senators have safe seats. Wyden supported the establishment and Wyden and Merkley supported the expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (CSNM) by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, respectively. Both supported successful legislation to envelop a very small Oregon Caves National Monument in a larger Oregon Caves National Preserve (a National Park Service national monument in all but name as it allows hunting). Senator Merkley had, but not now (hmmm . . . ), a bill in Congress to establish a Sutton Mountain National Monument in the middle John Day Basin. Senator Merkley was instrumental in persuading President Obama to expand the CSNM.
As to the Owyhee Canyonlands, Senator Ron Wyden introduced a bill pertaining to a portion of the Owyhee Canyonlands in 2017, 2020, 2022, and 2023. The 2017 bill was horrible, the 2020 bill was terrible, the 2022 bill was intolerable, and the 2023 bill was a net gain for conservation but not as great a net gain as it could be (see my various Public Lands Blog posts listed below under “For More Information”).
Senator Wyden and his staff have spent countless trying hours brokering a deal between conservation interests (mostly outside of Malheur County) and local public land grazing interests in Malheur County. The 2023 version of the bill would conserve ~1.1 million acres of new wilderness areas, release a significant amount of current wilderness study areas, and provide “flexibility” to local federal grazing permittees.
Locally
While some local support exists in Malheur County for Wyden’s wilderness/grazing bill, it’s probably more a case of extreme ambivalence. Wilderness designations and more flexibility for a score and two federal public lands grazing permittees (of which only ten pick up their mail in Malheur County) generate neither strong support nor strong opposition.
However, an Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument is quite a different matter. Locals, including local economic and recreation interests (such as the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, and the Ontario Recreation District) and local elected officials (including the mayor of Ontario, the mayor of Vale, and an Ontario city councilor) are openly supportive of an Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument. Such would have been unheard of a generation ago. A national monument is a popular brand.
Figure 7. Lupine in Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (Mark List).
The Process
Under the US Constitution, Congress has all the power over federal public lands (Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2). In 1906, Congress enacted the Antiquities Act, which says:
The President may, in the President’s discretion, declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated on land owned or controlled by the Federal Government to be national monuments.
The President may reserve parcels of land as a part of the national monuments. The limits of the parcels shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected. [emphasis added]
While the larger national monuments may well have “historic landmarks” and “historic and prehistoric structures,” they are primarily protecting “objects of . . . scientific interest.” The president is also constrained by the Antiquities Act of 1906 to limit the size of the national monument to the minimum necessary for the “proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is shopping for a case to reinterpret this provision. For this reason, modern national monument proclamations spell out such objects in great detail. An advantage to presidential proclamations of national monuments is that actions of the president are not subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, so opponents have no ability to overturn a proclamation on procedural grounds.
(By the way, a practical indicator that the president is going to proclaim a new national monument is the customary visit to the area by the secretary of the interior. If Secretary Deb Haaland comes to Malheur County, a monument is squarely on the table.)
Figure 8. A morning glow over the Owyhee River. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (Tyson Fisher).
Senators Wyden and Merkley Need to Step Up
The White House wants to save the Owyhee, but the president won’t proceed without the blessing of Oregon’s two US senators.
The Bleak and Dangerous 118th Congress
The fundamental purpose of a legislator is to legislate. However, Congress, for the most part, doesn’t enact bills into law like it did from the time that body was established until relatively recently.
To pass almost any bill in the Senate, sixty votes are needed to overcome a filibuster. Also, while forty-eight Democrats and three independent allies have majority control of the current Senate, simple majority rule does not exist as any one senator can place a “hold” (threat of a filibuster) on a bill.
Further, it has become the practice that any bill with the hope of enactment must generally pass through the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) with some semblance of bipartisan support. Practically, this means that to get one’s bill through committee, one has to find a committee member of the other party who will hold their nose and vote for your bill. The price? You have to hold your nose and vote for their bill. On top of that, almost all of the bills affecting public lands that do get through the Senate ENR committee are held from the floor to be later packaged with a score of other bills, some of which are good, some of which are whatever, and some of which are bad.
So even if Wyden could get his net-gain-for-conservation Owyhee legislation in an omnibus public lands package (which may or may not happen after the November general election), it would be in a legislative vehicle that does a lot of bad things. Then, even if such a package were to pass the Senate, it would likely be dead on arrival in the House of Representatives.
In the House of Representatives, Republicans hold a very small majority, while the minority Democrats end up supporting the Republican speaker from being deposed by a small cadre of right-wing wackos. In the case of Wyden’s Owyhee legislation, there is no companion version in the House, and the local House member, Representative Cliff Bentz (R-OR-2nd) is unalterably opposed to the bill. So too is the chair of the committee of jurisdiction for such legislation. Any Owyhee bill acceptable to Bentz would not be acceptable to the conservation community or to civic decency. There is in all likelihood no path for Wyden’s bill to clear the House of Representatives.
Figure 9. A California bighorn sheep ram in Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands. Wild sheep qualify as objects of scientific interest. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (S. Phifer).
The Monumental Opportunity
Back when Congress was more functional than now, it was often the case that successful congressional legislation followed a presidential proclamation of a national monument. Congress would come in afterward (sometime decades afterward) and do things like upgrade the national monument to a national park or otherwise extend protections to an area that the president could not. These days, it is the opposite. Unsuccessful legislation often precedes a presidential proclamation of a national monument. Many a recent national monument has encompassed a landscape of public lands that a state’s senators and representatives have long tried to persuade Congress to protect.
The White House is very interested in proclaiming a national monument in Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands—but only if it gets the all-clear from the state’s two Democratic senators.
Figure 10. It’s called a dark sky, but it is anything but. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (John Aylward).
Many Miscellaneous Monumental Matters
Here are a few other things on my mind.
Naming Names
It is quite possible that an Oregon Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument would have more than one administrative unit. In his proclamation, President Biden should name an administrative unit in honor of Mary Gautreaux, Senator Wyden’s longtime staffer and friend and a great Oregon conservationist.
If not for Mary Gautreaux, many good things would not have happened for Oregon’s public lands. Several wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers or additions to them would not have happened. Portland’s drinking water sources, the Bull Run and Little Sandy Rivers, would be dirtier. The view along the Mount Hood corridor would have more clear-cuts. The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument might not have happened. Millions of acres of ancient forest would have been clear-cut. Etc. Etc. Etc. S.1890 (118th Congress) as amended in committee would name a wilderness area after MG.
If there is a second administrative unit, Biden should name it after another late great Oregon conservationist, Richard L. Neuberger. Dick Neuberger served Oregon in the Oregon House of Representatives, the Oregon State Senate, the United States Army, and the United States Senate as the state’s first Jewish senator. In the latter role, Neuberger was an original cosponsor of what would eventually become the Wilderness Act of 1964. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see that, having died of cancer in 1960. A US senator from Oregon sponsoring a wilderness bill in the 1950s was as visionary as it was politically courageous.
Figure 11. The Clack Basin in the Owyhee Canyonlands. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (John Aylward).
Go Big and Go Home
The 2023 Wyden Owyhee bill (with Merkley as a cosponsor) would conserve ~1.1 million acres as units of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands has approximately ~2.5 million acres of wilderness-quality lands. Add in those lands not of wilderness quality but nonetheless monumental, and the entire extent of public lands in Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands is ~3.5 million acres.
The respondents to the poll mentioned earlier were asked several questions, about both the avenue and the amount of protection that should be granted to Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands:
• 60 percent supported the president in proclaiming a national monument, with no size given (the “ante”).
• 75 percent supported Congress (Wyden and Merkley) in legislating protection of 1.1 million acres (the legislative “monty”).
• 71 percent supported the president in proclaiming a 1.1-million-acre national monument (the presidential “monty”).
• 73 percent supported the president in proclaiming a 2.5-million-acre national monument (the presidential “fuller monty”).
We conclude from this:
• Specifying a number of acres to be protected raises support.
• A larger acreage to be protected engenders neither more nor less support.
• Whether Congress or the president protects Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands doesn’t matter to Oregonians; they just want someone to get it done.
• As all those percentages in the 70s range are within the margin of error of each other, no significant nuance should be read into the numbers and to any preference of Oregonians as to how Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands are protected. They just want to get it done.
While Oregonians as a whole are focused neither on size nor method of protection, as a whole, Oregon conservationists are focused on size. Wyden and Merkley can play to their enviro base by urging President Biden to get the fuller monty acreage done this year, which does greatly matter to us. How politically convenient that protecting a larger acreage has no downside for the elected official when they are seeking re-election in this or future years!
Ron Wyden and His Thirty-Sixth County
Every US senator I’ve ever known has seemed to have their great white whale. Mark Hatfield’s was Elk Creek Dam. Ron Wyden’s is Malheur County. In every one of Wyden’s six successful runs for the US Senate, he has won at least once in every one of Oregon’s thirty-six counties save one—Malheur County (Table 1). In his first election to the US Senate, Wyden won only seven counties. He peaked at thirty-five in 1998. In 2022, he won only twelve Oregon counties, but they were the right Oregon counties—generally those with the most voters. If Wyden runs and wins again in 2028, he may carry even fewer than twelve counties.
I have no doubt that—above and beyond seeking to do what he believes to be the right thing—Wyden’s long interest in forging a grand wilderness-grazing bargain in Malheur County is due to his hope that such might allow him finally to win Malheur County. While such would perhaps be an amusing piece of trivia for his Wikipedia page, it doesn’t matter. History will remember what Ron Wyden did (a forthcoming Public Lands Blog post will examine what Wyden has done [a lot] for public lands conservation and what he could do before he leaves the Senate [a lot more]), not that he won at least once in each of Oregon’s counties. Counties only count in the sense of being the administrative subdivision of the State of Oregon that actually counts the votes from the county.
Ironically, given the local business, community, and elected official support for a presidentially proclaimed national monument in Malheur County, if Wyden can position himself as the senator who convinced Biden to do it (and that would actually be the case), he might pick up some votes in Malheur County in 2028 in the case he runs again.
Or maybe not. If history is any guide, neither Jesus Christ nor Taylor Swift running as a Democrat would win in Malheur County, Oregon.
Figure 12. Winter in the Owyhee Canyonlands. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (Jan Fisher).
“Malheur County” No Longer Rhymes with “Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.”
There was an earlier effort to persuade President Obama to do a national monument at the end of his second term (2016). It didn’t happen, primarily because to those sitting inside the White House, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge—which right-wing crazies had occupied just months previously—rhymed with Malheur County (though the refuge is actually in the adjacent Harney County, both of which are larger than several US states).
An objection has been raised that Ammon Bundy might use a monument proclamation to do a “Malheur II.” This concern is not warranted for many reasons, including but not limited to these:
• The Malheur Refuge occupation leader has other things on his mind. COVID-19 and other conspiracies are his issues now. After losing a quixotic race for governor of Idaho in 2022, Bundy has been lying low since the St. Luke’s Health System seized his house after he was found guilty of defaming St. Luke’s.
• Public support is very strong locally in Malheur County for a national monument.
• The forces of darkness that occupied the national wildlife refuge have moved on to new issues and causes. As they have so much to hate and so little time, they won’t be circling back.
Figure 13. The West Little Owyhee River. Most of it is in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, but the protection afforded is only a narrow corridor that leaves the surrounding lands unprotected. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (Devin Dahlgren).
All Eyes on Ron Wyden
Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands need to be protected now for the benefit of this and future generations. The threats (mining, off-road vehicles, etc.) are high and the opportunity for protection via a national monument proclamation has never been greater.
For reasons that are no fault of Ron Wyden’s, and despite his best efforts, protecting Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands via congressional legislation is highly problematic in a number of ways.
Wyden will soon have to decide. He could tell Biden to back off and bet everything on his legislation that he has worked on so hard for so long being enacted into law this 118th Congress. Before the end of 2024. Or he can wisely hedge such a poor bet by also pursuing the monumental alternative, as the two are not mutually exclusive. Wyden can get the Biden administration working on a national monument now so it’s ready if Congress fails to act in December—as, in my opinion, is quite likely. If Wyden does the latter and the administration proclaims a monument before the end of Biden’s first term, the conservation community today and our descendants tomorrow will know that it was Ron Wyden who did the most to save Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands for this and future generations of Oregonians.
However, if Wyden doesn’t bless a Biden Owyhee alternative and his legislation does not become law in 2024, and the White House, Senate, and/or House of Representatives are even worse for public lands conservation than now, Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands may well be lost to this and future generations. And the story of why will not be pretty.
Figure 14. The Owyhee and West Little Owyhee Wild and Scenic Rivers, the life thread of the Owyhee Canyonlands. Wild and scenic river protection protects only a very narrow corridor along the stream. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (John Aylward).
Your Help Needed Now
President Biden, Senator Wyden, and Senator Merkley need to hear from you. Now. Click here to sign a petition.
Figure 14. The Owyhee Canyonlands, set within the vast Sagebrush Sea of the American West. Source: Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (Andrew Sambuceto).
For More Information
Kerr, Andy. 2000. Oregon Desert Guide. Seattle: Mountaineers Books.
———. 2016. “The Constitutionality of Federal Public Lands.” Public Lands Blog.
———. 2017. “Owyhee Canyonlands: Faux Conservation and Pork Barrel Development.” Public Lands Blog.
———. 2020. “L’Affaire Malheur, Part 1: The Proposed Legislation.” Public Lands Blog.
———. 2020. “L’Affaire Malheur, Part 2: Backstory and Analysis.” Public Lands Blog.
———. 2022. “Senator Wyden’s Owyhee Wilderness, and More, Legislation.” Public Lands Blog.
———. 2023. “Malheur County Federal Land Legislation Take 4, Part 1: The Good, the Whatever, and the Bad.” Public Lands Blog.
———. 2023. “Malheur County Federal Land Legislation Take 4, Part 2: The Ugly, the Missing, and the Alternative.” Public Lands Blog.
Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (website).