For Immediate Release

September 16, 2026

Contact:  Adam Bronstein, Western Watersheds Project, adam@westernwatersheds.org, (458) 336-3583

Greens Protest Plan to Expand Grazing in Owyhee Canyonlands

VALE, Ore.—On Monday, Western Watersheds Project delivered a formal protest of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed decision to authorize livestock grazing and build new pipelines and watering troughs that would facilitate hundreds of square miles of new intensive grazing use in the Louse Canyon General Management Area within the popular Owyhee Canyonlands.

“Livestock interests have been trying to expand high-impact cattle grazing into intact sagebrush in sensitive sage grouse and pygmy rabbit habitat in this part of the Owyhee for decades,” said Adam Bronstein, Oregon Director with Western Watersheds Project. “Springs and creeks have been decimated by cows in Louse Canyon. Instead of lessening the impacts, BLM wants to spread out the problem and sacrifice the remaining wildlands across this spectacular and biodiverse landscape.”

Overgrazing and riparian damage has been documented in the Louse Canyon area since at least the 1990s. BLM repeatedly found that livestock grazing was a significant cause of failing riparian standards through trampled streambanks, stripped-out streamside vegetation, and eroding banks.

BLM first acknowledged land health issues in 2002, when the agency officially determined that grazing was damaging streams and wetlands after conducting land health assessments and put a temporary, interim grazing plan into place. The “interim” plan has been in operation for over 20 years while BLM has worked toward a permanent decision — the EIS process happening now.

“The only thing left to do is decrease permitted cattle numbers,” said Bronstein. “The Big Grass fire just destroyed vast acreages of sagebrush to the north of Louse Canyon. This ecosystem is under tremendous stress and it certainly doesn’t need cattle in previously ungrazed expanses.” 

Western Watersheds Project is a nonprofit environmental conservation group dedicated to protecting and restoring native wildlife and watersheds throughout the American West.