by Conrad Wilson Follow and Ryan Haas OPB | July 29, 2016 9:15 p.m.
Blog Post by Linda Paul
As the trip winds down, euphoria and melancholy gather like the Muses’ faces on stage. Euphoria is nourished by new friendships, great stories, rides, scenery, and food, not to mention a week spent offline and blissfully ignorant of the latest grim headlines. Melancholy stems from the reality that all joyful adventures must come to an end, and soon granite peaks will give way to shrieking red and blue loyalists.
The trip began inauspiciously. Nearly half of the original participants were missing thanks to a shit storm of bad luck, including a car wreck. My adventures began, as a guest of Janine Townsend, with a short (how short, I had no idea) scouting trip from our campsite to Stanley Lake. First to arrive and set up camp, we were eager to explore. This was my maiden voyage aboard Bubba the Mule. We rode alongside a road that was far too busy, then worked our way down to the lake, scouting future swimming sites. Transcending a ridiculously steep embankment, we offered the animals a drink, but they were more interested in grass than in water. On the way back up that embankment, Bubba the Mule and I encountered a parting of the ways. Despite my grand efforts to hang onto at least one rein, I ended up holding a hank of leather attached to nothing but air. Injured pride aside, I tied the remaining rein into a very short roping rein, remounted Bubba and we headed back to camp just in time to greet the newest arrivals.
By Ken Cole and Kevin Proescholdt
We hear a lot about the custom, culture and tradition of livestock ranching, and we’ve all seen the images of the chap-wearing cowboy mounted proudly on his horse riding behind his herd.
But these days, it seems, Idaho’s Owyhee country cowboys aren’t so rugged. They’ve asked for special legislation allowing them to have virtually unlimited use of motor vehicles in the six Owyhee Canyonlands wildernesses, putting wilderness protection at risk across the country and undermining the existing rules that allow motorized use for grazing purposes only where and when it’s necessary — the same rules that govern wilderness cowboys everywhere else in the West.
The new bill, S.1167, sponsored by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, would not only allow ranchers to drive trucks, ATVs, motorcycles and other vehicles into wilderness, but also remove the management authority of the Bureau of Land Management to decide where motorized use is permissible. The ink has barely dried on BLM’s new management plan to govern these wildernesses, issued after three years of public involvement. It should be given time to work before being undermined.
The agency itself testified in Congress against the bill, explaining that S.1167 would undermine “the longstanding definition and spirit of wilderness as established in the Wilderness Act of 1964.” Twenty-six conservation groups have also opposed the bill, so why are groups such as The Wilderness Society in support? We think that they are more concerned about bringing back provisions of the deal they struck with ranchers, provisions that were rightly rejected by Congress when the final wilderness language was approved in the 2009 bill creating the wildernesses. Is deal-making more important than the conservation of these spectacular areas? Because The Wilderness Society made a Faustian bargain with a handful of Owyhee ranchers, do they think the Owyhee wildernesses and the American public should have to suffer for it?
If Owyhee ranchers don’t want to walk or climb into the saddle and ride into the wilderness, they should consider taking advantage of a grazing buyout option that was authorized by the enabling bill. Private parties stand at the ready to give Owyhee ranchers a fair price to relinquish their grazing permits and restore these desert wildernesses from harmful livestock grazing impacts. Rather than weakening wilderness by allowing additional motorized incursions, our legislators should instead support strengthening wilderness by getting the nonnative domestic livestock off. The bill would also set a dangerous precedent for all wildernesses in the U.S. where ranchers still abide by longstanding motorized restrictions.
Having cows in wilderness is compromise enough; having cowboys riding noisy motor vehicles is a bridge too far. S.1167 should be roundly opposed by anyone who cares about the integrity of wilderness laws.
Ken Cole is Idaho director for Western Watersheds Project, a regional conservation organization based in Hailey. Kevin Proescholdt is the conservation director for Wilderness Watch, a national organization based in Missoula, Mont.
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S.1167 – 114th Congress (2015-2016): Owyhee Wilderness Areas Boundary Modifications Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
There is one summary for S.1167. Bill summaries are authored by CRS.Shown Here:
Introduced in Senate (04/30/2015)
Introduced in Senate (04/30/2015)
Owyhee Wilderness Areas Boundary Modifications Act
Adjusts the boundaries of the North Fork Owyhee Wilderness, the Owyhee River Wilderness, and the Pole Creek Wilderness in Idaho to exclude certain land.
Amends the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 to allow motor vehicles to continue to be used for livestock monitoring, herding, and gathering in the Big Jacks Creek Wilderness, Bruneau-Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness, Little Jacks Creek Wilderness, North Fork Owyhee Wilderness, Owyhee River Wilderness, and Pole Creek Wilderness.
Requires the Department of the Interior to: (1) report to Congress on all livestock grazing management activities that were authorized in such wilderness areas on the day before they were designated as wilderness, and (2) use the report to assist in the management of livestock grazing in those areas.
Hi All,
I want to put this out to our group first to see if anyone is interested in working with Madison Shambaugh. www.madisonshambaugh.com (also on FB Madison Shambaugh). Most people aren’t familiar with Madison. She won the 2015 Mustang Challenge where she was given a wild mustang to train for 100 days prior to the competition. She rode in to the arena and did the usual reining patterns, but bridleless. Madison has trained several mustangs and a zebra-she’ll have all 5 equines with her. Watch a few of her videos to learn more.
I attended Madison’s horsemanship clinic in Virginia (long story about my unexpected surgery), but didn’t get to attend much of it. I offered to let Madison stay here on her way from Utah to another clinic and she is willing to do that. She has opened up Aug. 11th for private lessons ($100/hr), groups of 2-3 ($65/hr), and auditors ($25/day).
Topics are open: problem horses (bucking, rearing, pulling back, bolting, pushy, biting, trailer loading, etc), liberty, bridleless, and body control on the ground and under saddle for softer horses. She can evaluate a horse and rider and give them exercises to challenge them and advance them in their horsemanship skills.
Let me know ASAP if you’re interested. We’ll hold the lessons at Birt Arena in Nampa in the indoor arena (shade) potentially from 8am to 8pm.
I’ll have a flyer available soon.
Thanks! Lou Ann
208-891-4008
