Friends of Idaho Watersheds Project

Your help is needed immediately to save one of the largest unprotected roadless areas remaining in the lower 48 states, the Owyhee Canyonlands of Idaho, Oregon and Nevada.  This prized desert jewel could be wrecked soon by an Air Force bombing range and war games battlefield proposal, unless we act today.

This nearly three million acre remote, rugged region is home to a diversity of wildlife, including the nation's largest population of California bighorn sheep. It is also  a prime  recreational spot for rafting, hiking, hunting and fishing.

The Owyhee Canyonlands contain 24 designated BLM Wilderness Study Areas and 15 rivers eligible for Wild and Scenic designation. Sunset magazine recently nominated the entire area for National Park status. But it could all be lost to a completely unnecessary and destructive bombing range site if the Air Force and Senator Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID) have their way.  Senator Kempthorne is underhandedly steamrolling the issue ahead and has tucked an amendment into the Defense Authorization bill, S. 1812, that would take away over 12,000 acres of public lands for permanent military use and submit the entire region to increased supersonic and low level flights, which are devastating to people and to wildlife.

Fortunately, this backdoor move has not gone unnoticed.  Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) have introduced a counter measure, an amendment to strike Kempthorne's proposal.  That striking amendment needs our support. The defense bill is due for a vote in the immediate future.

Every local, daily paper in the area has editorialized opposition to the bombing range, noting that the Air Force has never been able to demonstrate a need for this expansion.  Currently, nearby ranges in Utah and Nevada provide existing, frequent training opportunities.  This duplication of existing training is not worth the loss the Owyhees would suffer.

We need you to call your Senator today at 202-224-3121 and tell them "No Bombing Range!  Idaho is too great to bomb and the Owyhees deserve better." Please urge your Senators to support the Reid/Inouye/Wyden amendment to strike the Owyhee bombing range language when it is offered on the Senate  floor and take this unnecessary attack on our public land and wildlife out of the picture.

Again, that number is 202-224-3121.  Call your Senator today and help protect the Owyhees, for our families and for our future!