It’s been 15 years since the Bureau of Land
Management wrote a management plan for the 1.3 million-acre Owyhee
Resource Area in southwest Idaho, and the agency’s attempt to
revise it isn’t sitting well with ranchers and off-road vehicle
enthusiasts. BLM officials were caught off guard in November when
several hundred critics showed up at meetings on the draft plan in
the small towns of Murphy, Idaho, and Jordan Valley, Ore. Another
meeting in Boise was canceled by a fire marshal after more than 500
people showed up in a room designed for 300 people. The preferred
alternative of the draft management plan calls for a 35 percent
reduction of grazing and requires that cattle be out of riparian
areas by July 15 of every year. It also specifies zones for ORV
usage and prescribes areas where vehicles can’t leave existing
roads and jeep trails. Conservationists say the proposals are a
step in the right direction; opponents have attacked Owyhee
Resource Area manager Jay Carlson and the BLM in ugly op-ed pieces
in the Idaho Statesman, accusing Carlson of being a dictator.
Carlson says that an extra 1,000 copies of the plan are being
printed, and the comment period will be extended another seven
months, until July 5.
For more information or a
copy of the 1,200-page plan, contact the Owyhee Area Manager, BLM,
Boise Field Office, 3948 Development Ave., Boise, ID 83706
(208/384-3300).
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Uproar over Owyhee.
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