400k+ acres of Owyhee Canyonlands Set Aside by BLM

Great news for a beautiful and iconic landscape within the Columbia River watershed! The Bureau of Land Management has finally agreed to set aside over 400,000 acres of public lands in the Owyhee Canyonlands. This has been a multi decade long task involving so many folks.

I’m grateful to have spent quite a bit of time in this amazing place while working on my new book Big River. I thought I'd put together a post of some of the photos I took from this area some of which made it into my new book which will be released in June. Others haven't been published anywhere. I hope you enjoy.

If you want to read more about this check out an in-depth blog post by The Oregon Natural Desert Association.

Pre-sale for the Big River book is launching on April 15th.

For more content like this and to support my work become a member of my Patreon community.

For the Water,

D

Pronghorn traverse the Owyhee River watershed.

Ancient petroglyphs in the traditional territory of the Northern Pauite people.

Ryan Mackenzie and Jaylen Eldridge rope a calf on family owned Mackenzie Ranch on Succor Creek, a tributary of the Snake River.

Flowering paintbrush pokes out from a sagebrush bush in arid grassland in the Snake River watershed.

A Sage Grouse displays.

Buster Gibson - a member of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes’ Duck Valley Reservation and the director of the tribe’s Fish and Game Department.

Owyhee River just upstream from Rome, Oregon.

The Owyhee River flows out of a deep canyon near the Three Forks confluence.

Owyhee River just upstream from Rome, Oregon.

Sunset at Anderson Crossing, Little Owyhee River.

A beaver feeding on willow in the Owyhee River.

A male Northern Harrier flies through Owyhee Canyonlands.

Spring snow squall obscures the Owyhee River flowing through a deep canyon in southeastern Oregon.

A dusting of spring snow might be all the moisture this part of the Big River watershed sees all year here in northern Nevada.

Watershed of the Little Owyhee River in the upper reach of the Owyhee Canyonlands close to the Oregon Nevada border.