The lonely sagebrush uplands, steep-sided canyons and thrilling whitewater of the Owyhee Canyonlands gained permanent protection Wednesday.
By a vote of 285 to 140, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. The U.S. Senate has also approved the legislation, which now heads to the desk of President Barack Obama for signing.
Included in the large package of public-land bills is Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo's Owyhee Canyonlands wilderness bill. The passage of the Owyhee legislation breaks a legislative logjam that's prevented the designation of new federal wilderness in Idaho for nearly three decades.
Voting in favor of the legislation were the state's two House members, Republican Mike Simpson and first-term Democrat Walt Minnick. They joined their Senate counterparts, Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, both Republicans, who had voted for the measure on March 19.
During an interview Wednesday, Crapo, the sponsor of the Owyhee legislation, commended the collaboration of ranchers, conservationists and County Commissioners who worked together to help craft it.
"They really deserve the credit," he said.
Crapo expressed excitement about the passage of the first Idaho wilderness bill since 1980 and the unanimous vote of the state's congressmen for a wilderness bill.
"It is tremendously rewarding," he said. "We have a united Idaho delegation."
In a speech on the House floor on Wednesday, Minnick extolled the rugged beauty of the canyonlands region. He told his House colleagues that the protections cover portions of Owyhee County, home to only 12,000 "hardscrabble" residents. He said that amounts to fewer people per square mile than any county in the continental United States.
"Last summer, I had the privilege of spending several days floating a rarely visited upper stretch of the river within the area this bill will protect," he said.
Crapo's bill protects more than 517,000 acres in six wilderness areas—ranging in size from the 12,468-acre Pole Creek Wilderness to the 269,016-acre Owyhee River Wilderness—in Idaho's remote southwest corner.
Idaho Conservation League Executive Director Rick Johnson said the most significant consequence of wilderness designation in the Owyhee area is the elimination of off-road vehicle use. He said the proximity of an easily accessible remote area so close to fast-growing Ada County had resulted in an expanding network of vehicle tracks.
The Owyhee legislation also protects 316 miles of streams and rivers in the Owyhee, Bruneau and Jarbidge river systems as Wild and Scenic. The designation prohibits activities that change the rivers' free-flowing state, including dam building.
Nationwide, the Omnibus bill designates 2.1 million acres of wilderness in nine states, the single largest expansion of the country's federal system of wilderness areas since 1994.
As he has in the past, Crapo said the passage of the Owyhee wilderness legislation bodes well for Simpson's Boulder-White Clouds bill, which would establish 318,765 acres of new wilderness in the scenic alpine ranges north of Ketchum.
Jason Kauffman: jkauffman@mtexpress.com
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho
