The proposal for designating nearly 1 million acres of the Owyhee Canyonlands as wilderness will be a topic of a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 19.
The Federal Lands Subcommittee of House Committee on Natural Resources will take invited testimony on nine pieces of legislation.
The hearing is scheduled to start at 12 noon Mountain Time and can be viewed on Youtube.
Among those scheduled to testify on the are Elias Eiguren, treasurer of the Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition, and Ryan Houston, executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association.
WATCH: House hearing
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, a Republican from Oregon, recently introduced the “Oregon Owyhee Wilderness and Community Protection Act.”
A subcommittee memo about the hearing described the legislation as “a thoughtful solution to address land management issues in Oregon in a collaborative approach, avoiding a unilateral national monument designation.”
“Ranching and grazing cattle on federal land is extremely important to the residents of Malheur County, where cattle outnumber people by more than five to one,” according to the committee memo. “Yet, since 2015, extreme activists have called for the President to designate 2.5 million acres, or roughly 40 percent, of Malheur County as a national monument.”
Bentz’s proposal “provides several protections for ranchers and grazing permittees.”
Wilderness designation would be placed on 926,588 acres of federal land in Malheur County under the legislation.
“To balance these designations, more than 1.6 million acres of BLM land currently under some form of restriction are redesignated and managed for multiple use,” according to the committee memo.
The proposal picks up much of the language in legislation proposed in the Senate by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat.
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Bentz proposes his own version of Owyhee Canyonlands protection, hearing set
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