Making a Plan for the Owyhee Canyonlands

The Owyhee Canyonlands is a national treasure, featuring miles upon miles of deep rugged canyons and rolling sagebrush grasslands that support a rich diversity of wildlife and feature some of the darkest night skies in the country.

The Southeastern Oregon Resource Management Plan Amendment is the Bureau of Land Management’s blueprint for managing this wondrous and ecologically vital corner of the state. More than two decades in the making, the SEORMP was completed in 2024 and established a new paradigm for managing 4.5 million acres of federal public lands on the Malheur Field Office in the Bureau of Land Management’s Vale District. The plan addresses everything from conservation of wildlands and cultural resources to livestock grazing, off-road vehicle use and the increasing impacts of climate change on public lands. It also sets a new precedent for protecting desert wildlands.

Oregon Natural Desert Association was involved from the beginning, inventorying wildlands, monitoring habitats, and insisting that the new plan adhere to both science and law in managing and conserving our shared public lands, waters and wildlife.

This timeline charts ONDA’s involvement in the plan–from start to finish!

Download the timeline
Read about the SEORMP

 

 

listen

Owyhee Canyon Swallows Sparrows and Rushing Water

Owyhee Canyon Swallows Sparrows and Rushing Water

voices

John Cunningham, ONDA member and volunteer

John Cunningham, ONDA member and volunteer

Restoration is hard slow work. It takes hold, or it doesn’t, in fits and starts. The immensity of the need can be discouraging, but we must carry on. I am so thankful ONDA carries on.

voices

Tim Neville, journalist

Tim Neville, journalist

“Oregon’s Owyhee reminds me a lot of Southern Utah’s red rock country… only dipped in fudge.”