O'Casey

For many Oregonians, hunting, public lands and family go together. Every year, parents take their children out to bag their first buck, catch their first trout or take aim at their first covey of chukar.

Generation upon generation of hunters pass on the family tradition of waking up early, heading out to our state’s gorgeous public lands, and heading home (hopefully) with protein to feed the family. As we approach hunting season, it’s worth reflecting on how we use our public lands and how we can protect access to hunting, fishing and our wild public lands for our children.

This year, the Bureau of Land Management, which manages some of the best hunting and fishing areas in Southeast Oregon, is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The theme of this milestone is to “Reimagine our Public Lands,” which include places like the Owyhee Canyonlands and the Trout Creek Mountains. This anniversary comes right as the BLM’s Vale District is conducting a public process to amend its resource management plan — a once-in-a-generation opportunity to guide management on these lands for the next 20 years.

Known for its dark skies where one can view the stunning spread of the Milky Way, find increasingly rare solitude and build memories of backcountry adventures, the Owyhee is one of the most remote and beloved expanses in the Lower 48. For decades, folks have been trying to preserve this unique area through various pathways including legislation, national monument designation and through administrative planning, such as the RMP.

While the BLM is asking the public to reimagine our public lands, hunters and anglers are asking them to make changes to its preferred alternative within the draft Southeast Oregon Resource Management Plan, the amendment that was published in 2019. In the BLM’s preferred alternative, it chose not to manage even a single additional acre for its conservation values.

The kicker is the agency itself identified more than 1.2 million acres as containing wilderness characteristics, meaning these lands are wild, undeveloped, backcountry lands and many of these acres deserve to be managed to ensure they remain that way.

Oregonians deserve a plan that protects our access and enjoyment of these shared public lands and one that will conserve habitat for iconic species such as the sage grouse and our state’s renowned big game animals that have been declining for decades.

This RMP will guide management across millions of acres of public land for decades to come. Through this amendment process, there is an opportunity for the BLM to conserve this wild and remote area by limiting unnecessary development. Following the BLM’s stated vision of reimagining the shared treasure of our public lands, this is a golden opportunity to truly reimagine this plan.

The BLM is reviewing more than 4,000 public comments that were submitted about the draft plan. The bulk of those comments asked the BLM to make changes to their proposal and to conserve this backcountry escape. With the recent shift in the administration, the BLM has a great opportunity to make changes between the 2019 draft plan and the soon-to-be released, proposed final plan. These changes should incorporate additional conservation measures that would protect hundreds of thousands of acres of remote, backcountry landscapes.

The solitude and the quiet in these remote high desert canyons and sagebrush plateaus are some of the finest values any place can offer. As the BLM celebrates 75 years, we should make sure our public lands are protected for the next 75, starting with this hidden Oregon gem. Please make your voice heard and speak up by joining the Owyhee Sportsmen’s Coalition or contacting your senators today.

Updating the Southeast Oregon RMP to include conservation measures will make sure we are always able to share this place with the next generation of hunters and anglers and we continue to have robust game species to pursue this uniquely American heritage.

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