Owyhee Initiative Implementation Act (September 27, 2006)
Congress is considering a proposed "Owyhee
Initiative Implementation Act of 2006" that would designate Wilderness
and Wild and Scenic Rivers in the Owyhee Country in Idaho. However, the
bill also implements an agreement (the "Owyhee Initiative")
developed by an ad hoc group of special and public interests that could
undermine conservation of federal public land in the Owyhee Country. The
bill would empower the same, locally contrived ad hoc advisory group to
assist with implementation of the legislation and the Owyhee Initiative;
create a science review process to influence and favor grazing management
on federal public land; and establish a conservation research program
and center that would be unduly influenced by public lands grazing interests
and duplicative of other public and private research programs in the Owyhee
Country. The bill also releases several Bureau of Land Management Wilderness
Study Areas from future consideration as Wilderness and authorizes private-public
land exchanges that are not in the public interest.
The Sagebrush Sea Campaign submitted comments to the Senate Subcommittee
on Public Lands and Forests of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
that has jurisdiction over the legislation.
Sagebrush
Sea Campaign Statement on the Owyhee Initiative Implementation Act
of 2006  |
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Owyhee
Initiative Implementation Act of 2006 (S. 3794)
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Owyhee
Initiative Agreement |