Bentz: Owyhee Request “Crying Wolf”

Late last month, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek sent a letter to President Biden asking that he designate the Owyhee Canyonlands as a national monument before he leaves office.

Eastern Oregon Congressman Cliff Bentz calls Kotek’s letter to Biden a “Classic example of crying wolf.”

"She should answer these questions:  How many millions of acres in size is this monument she supports?  What is the purpose of this monument?  How many additional thousands of visitors from the immediately adjacent Boise Valley, home of about 900,000, would be attracted to this fragile area by a Monument designation?  What are these “devastating consequences” she references?  Why does she want to obstruct and stop the transfer of a cultural icon (Castle Rock) and 23,000 acres of grazing land to the Burns Paiute Tribe?  Why does she falsely say that there is “broad support” for this monument from “local interests” when 90% of the voters in the county in which it would be located voted against such a designation?  Why does she object to land management that will actually improve the condition of this land while protecting the people (including the tribes) who have lived on it for generations?  And finally, why is she talking about impending “devastation” when she, of all people, knows that it takes literally decades to do anything in Oregon, including on federal land, that requires a permit?" 

"I have been on a first name basis with now Governor Kotek for 17 years," Bentz added.  "She has my cell phone number.  She knows I have lived in Malheur County for much of my life.  Yet not a peep from her since she became Governor.  No effort by her or by her staff to inquire regarding the locally based efforts to find agreement regarding management of the Owyhee that we have been working on for at least seven years.  Sadly, whether it’s forest land, range land, farmland, the ocean, or the Oregon coast, the predictable Portland centric approach is to ignore the people trying to make a living in harmony with these resources, and instead impose management techniques guaranteed to make things worse.  The devastation the Governor should be talking about is what which has happened and is happening to the timber industry, the wastelands created by intense wildfires, the economically ravaged small communities, and the flow of business and people out of our state."

Both Bentz and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden have proposed legislation the lawmakers say would protect grazing rights and public use of the area; but those bills stalled in Congress.

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