Oregon Public Broadcasting

A leaked internal memo from the Bureau of Land management shows the Obama Administration is considering designating more than a dozen sites in the west as National Monuments.  As David Nogueras reports, one of those sites is the Owyhee Desert in Eastern Oregon.

Bureau of Land Management

Owyhee River Canyon

The Owyhee spans three states and represents at least 4 million acres of public lands. The delicate sagebrush steppe ecosystem is home to the world's largest herd of California Big Horn Sheep.

Chris Hansen is the Oregon Natural Desert Association’s Owyhee Coordinator.

He says more than a million acres are protected as wilderness study areas.  But that’s a non-permanent designation that sometimes allows activities including four-wheeling and mining.

ONDA has been pushing for Congress to classify the Owyhee as a permanent Wilderness area.

But Hansen says the designation as a National Monument would accomplish the same goal.

Chris Hansen: "It’s sort of an expedited method that the president can use as a tool without having to go though Congress."

Hansen points out President Clinton made use of that authority in creating the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996.

Other areas on the list of proposed sites include the Heart of the Great Basin in Nevada and the San Juan Islands in Washington State.