Ontario, OR — Citing increased urgency, the campaign to Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands is quickly gaining momentum. Twenty thousand individuals in Oregon and beyond have now signed the online petition calling on Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley to work with President Biden to secure national monument designation for the Owyhee before the end of 2024. Growing support for the campaign reflects the importance of climate and conservation issues among key constituencies—especially young voters—and the Owyhee Canyonlands is the largest conservation opportunity remaining in the American West.

Mary Fleischmann, the leader of the Central and Eastern Oregon Bitterbrush chapter of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, details the decades-long effort towards securing permanent protection for the Owyhee. She emphasizes the immediate action needed from Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and President Biden to ensure its preservation.

Kate and Aaron are joined by Tim Davis, founder and executive director of Friends of the Owyhee, and Karly Foster, campaign manager at the Oregon Natural Desert Association, to talk about how we can better protect the Owyhee Canyonlands. The Owyhee Canyonlands span from southeast Oregon into southwest Idaho, and it is one of the most remote, intact landscapes in the Western U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon is running a bill that would help balance extractive uses and conservation in the landscape, and the coalition working to protect the Owyhee just launched a campaign asking President Joe Biden to designate the region as a monument, as well.

Oregon has a fairly secret national treasure in the southeastern part of our state: the Owyhee Canyonlands, also known as Oregon’s Grand Canyon. Remoteness has protected the canyonlands, but only until now. Key portions of the Owyhee have been designated by a coalition of ranchers, recreationalists, tribal members, local officials and others as needing full protection, either through the Malheur Community Empowerment for the Owyhee Act introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden or by becoming a national monument.

National monument protection is needed in the Owyhee Canyonlands of southeastern Oregon, conservation groups say. The Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands campaign, announced Sept. 6, calls for President Joe Biden’s administration to make the designation by the end of 2024, because “with threats to the land only growing, the Owyhee cannot wait any longer,” according to a news release.

Although miles away from the Portland metro area, the ecological, recreational and cultural importance of the Owyhee is a concern for all Oregonians. Development pressures from mining, proposed infrastructure projects, and climate change represent urgent threats to the long-term health of the region. The Owyhee is too valuable to lease away to those who see it as a chance for profit. The time is now to ensure this treasure receives the protection it urgently needs.

The Owyhee Canyonlands is a place that radiates with magic. Here, ancient lava rock erodes into honeycombs and lush sagebrush blooms from gnarled branches. Rattlesnakes, badgers, grouse and antelope thrive in the unforgiving landscape, often hidden away from human eyes. Hiking, boating or driving through this landscape is a humbling experience. Towering cathedrals of red rock rise triumphantly from the earth, either dwarfing the humans who stand beneath them or fascinating us with their many forms: spires like fingers emerging from the ground, sheer cliff walls, great blobs of eroded mountains.

Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley’s Malheur Community Empowerment for the Owyhee Act would protect more than 1 million acres of what’s often called “Oregon’s Grand Canyon” from wildfire and degradation. The legislation would permanently protect more than 1.1 million acres of federal public lands in the Owyhee Canyonlands and a 15-mile stretch of the Owyhee River. It would also transfer 30,000 acres of federal and private land into a trust overseen by the Burns Paiute Tribe.

The Owyhee Canyonlands, a 2.5-million-acre expanse of unprotected wilderness, needs federal recognition. Within its boundaries, there are hundreds of species that depend on the canyonlands, ranging from golden eagles to the greatly beloved sage grouse. Not only does it provide a home to more than 200 species of fish and wildlife, it also supports numerous endemic plant species, some of which are found nowhere else on this planet.