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U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) announced today he will introduce a bill aimed at protecting the Owyhee Canyonlands in his district in southeastern Oregon.
Bentz said he plans to debut the bill Nov. 19 in the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands. The announcement comes after weeks of intense talks with U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) who had introduced his own bill aimed at protecting the Owyhee, in concert with U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
The problem, however, had been that Bentz, whose district includes the Owyhee, was not supportive of the Senate bill, which would designate 1.1 million acres in the Owyhee as a federal wilderness, offering a high level of protection to the vast and ruggedly beautiful region people sometimes call Oregon’s Grand Canyon.
Although conservation groups led by the Oregon Natural Desert Association and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters have mobilized behind the Senate bill, the lack of support in the Republican-controlled House made passage unlikely. That in turn led the conservation groups to mount a pressure campaign aimed at getting Wyden and Merkley to abandon their bill and instead push President Joe Biden to name the Owyhee acreage a national monument instead. Biden can do that with the stroke of a pen and is, like other presidents at the ends of their terms, looking for legacies.
In a September story about the standoff, WW quoted Bentz as saying he thought a slimmed-down version of Wyden’s bill could in fact pass the House in the lame-duck session after the Nov. 5 election. “We have plenty of time to get it done,” Bentz said then.
Related: Ron Wyden Could Ask President Biden to Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands. Why Hasn’t He?
Since that story, Bentz and Wyden have met repeatedly to resolve their differences on how much land should be protected and under what terms. The result is the “Oregon Owyhee Wilderness and Community Protection Act,” which Bentz will introduce Nov. 19.
“This bill is the result of hundreds of hours of negotiation and collaboration by those who live, work, and recreate in Malheur County, the Burns Paiute Tribe, and many environmental organizations. It is based on a bill introduced last year by Sen. Ron Wyden,” Bentz said today. “I want to thank the senator for his personal involvement and for his staff’s work, and I look forward to successfully passing this bill out of the House within the next few weeks.”
Wyden said Bentz’s introduction of the bill marks a “significant step forward.”
“I applaud Congressman Bentz’s thoughtful and constructive approach and am looking forward, as we continue to work together on this bill, to success on legislation that leaves the farmers, ranchers, preservationists, Tribes and all the residents of Eastern Oregon the true winners of the economic and preservation gains this legislative approach can achieve.”
But Ryan Houston, executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association, which has pushed hard for protections for the Owyhee, expressed skepticism at the latest development in a yearslong saga.
“I appreciate that Rep. Bentz is finally acknowledging the importance of protecting the Owyhee Canyonlands but I find it hard to imagine this 11th-hour announcement is anything other than a political stunt designed to create confusion and run out the clock on 2024,” Houston says.
“While Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley spent the past five years working with tribes, ranchers, conservation groups, hunters, recreationalists, businesses and others to develop their thoughtfully negotiated, well-balanced proposal, Rep. Bentz chose not to participate in those conversations and has yet to even share his proposal with the majority of the stakeholders who have been working together for so long.
“This is deeply disappointing,” Houston added. “Sens. Wyden and Merkley should stay focused on the proposal they negotiated and, if Rep. Bentz or the House of Representatives gets in the way of that, join the chorus of voices calling to protect the Owyhee Canyonlands as a National Monument.”