Owyhee Initiative

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"The best way to make decisions about our environment and land is through cooperation and collaboration, and we have done that with the Owyhee Initiative proposal."   - Mike Crapo

The Owyhee Initiative is a collaborative effort with a broad representation, started by the Owyhee County Commissioners in 2001, to address and resolve decades-old land management issues in Owyhee County, Idaho. On March 25, 2009, the House of Representatives passed legislation containing the Owyhee Initiative language, completing the cycle started when the Senate passed the same legislation a few days earlier on March 19, 2009.  On March 30, 2009, President Obama signed the legislation into law.  I commend all those who have been involved for eight years in making this goal a reality.

Garatt Crossing, Owyhee CanyonlandsThe Owyhee Initiative will designate 517,000 acres of public land as the Owyhee-Bruneau Wilderness, in six units, release 199,000 acres of wilderness study areas to non-wilderness multiple use management and designate 316 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers.

 

On April 9, 2008, I re-introduced legislation regarding the Owyhee Initiative in the U.S. Senate. Listed below are a number of documents and links that provide more detail about S. 2833.  Click here for a summary sheet on the legislation.

 

On January 15, 2009, the Senate passed the Owyhee Initiative as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act by a vote of 73-21.  Below are my comments on the Senate floor from January 11, 2009, urging the Senate to invoke cloture, or begin consideration of the bill:

 

The Owyhee Initiative, as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 29, 2009. 

Goal

The goal of the initiative has been to develop and implement a landscape-scale program in Owyhee County that preserves the natural processes that create and maintain a functioning, unfragmented landscape. This will support and sustain a flourishing community of human, plant, and animal life. It will also provides for economic stability by preserving livestock grazing as an economically-viable use and that provides for protection of cultural resources.

My Role

I have been involved, from the beginning, in the efforts to draft a Owyhee Initiative Working Group meets in Bruneaucollaborative proposal for Owyhee County. The workgroup finished crafting a full proposal, and turned it over to the Owyhee County Commissioners for review. The Owyhee County Commissioners and the Shoshone Paiute Tribes passed the agreement on to me in October 2004. With passage of the bill, I am now working with the Owyhee Initiative Board of Directors (formerly known as the Work Group) to implement all facets of this bill and the Owyhee Initiative Agreement.

Legislation

Read the legislation, S. 2833, introduced in the U.S. Senate on April 9, 2008 (PDF).  This same legislation was part of an omnibus lands bill, containing more than 150 other measures regarding public lands management.

Click here for a summary of S. 2833.

Supporting Documents and Maps

Please note that some documents listed below are very large files, and it is advisable that you right-click on the link and select "save as" to the hard drive on your computer before attempting to open them.

Owyhee Initiative Wild and Scenic Rivers Act Water Rights Agreement PDF (49 kb)
Shoshone Paiute Tribes & Owyhee County MOU PDF (625 kb)
Cultural Resource Protection Project PDF (86kb)
Owyhee Initiative Hunter Access Road Review PDF (22 kb)
Owyhee Initiative Final Agreement PDF (140 kb)

Please note that the maps listed below are very large files, and it is advisable that you right-click on the link and select "save as" to the hard drive on your computer before attempting to open them.

Big Little Jack's Creek Wilderness PDF (12.87 MB)
Bruneau Jarbidge Wilderness PDF (9.89 MB)
North Fork Owyhee Pole Creek Wilderness PDF (13.16 MB)
Owyhee Initiative Vicinity Map PDF (9.12 MB)
Owyhee River Wilderness PDF (10.70 MB)

 

More Information

For more information, please visit the Owyhee Initiative website.

 

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Last updated 06/02/2011
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