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Protecting The Owyhee Canyonlands The vast Owyhee landscape is a national treasure. We need to work together, to look beyond state boundaries to protect the larger region. The three state patchwork fragments the landscape into a disconnected system of designations and administrations. If we are to truly protect the greater Owyhee Canyonlands, we have to connect the state boundaries and recognize that we have one national treasure. We have to link the pieces of the puzzle together. Significant Values The canyonlands' characteristics make them a priority for conservation: The area has value as an entire and intact landscape of sage steppe, canyonlands, and woodlands; a center of biodiversity and endemic species; a unique and dynamic system representing one of the last remaining areas of high range integrity in the Columbia River Basin; It has vital importance as unfragmented core habitat for numerous sagebrush obligate migratory songbirds, raptors, and other sagebrush obligate species including pronghorn antelope and pygmy rabbit, including a specific role in providing necessary large tracts of habitat for sage grouse; The area is critical habitat for the largest population of California big horn sheep in the nation; It contains populations of other fauna of special concern including redband trout, spotted bat, Columbia spotted frog, Bruneau hot springs snail, Mojave collared lizard, loggerhead shrike, and river otters among others; Rare and endemic plant communities including those associated with intermittent streams and playas, ash endemics, and 36 diverse communities of sagebrush are found here; It has prominence as one of the richest cultural landscapes in the West including National Register quality rock shelters, petroglyph panels, rock alignments, and historic cabins; Its unique geology features a massive complex of exposed rhyolite canyons found nowhere else in the world and providing evidence of the path of the Yellowstone hot spot as well as associated volcanism with ash-flow tuffs; It has an unusual series of exposed paleontological strata in the remnants of vast inland lake stages; The area has deep historical significance, reaching back over 12,000 years and encompassing the stories of indigenous people as well as Euro-American settlers, with current importance as a sacred site in the culture of the Shoshone and Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation; The Canyonlands have value as a natural laboratory for scientific research, an unfragmented ecosystem for use as a reference area and as an anchor for species restoration and long term population viability; They include an incredible network of rivers and canyons offering clean water and world-class opportunities for recreation; They have value as an enclave of solitude and vast open space; And finally, they are threatened by invasive species, unchecked ORV use, vandalism, road building, overgrazing, range projects and other developments that threaten the integrity of the ecosystem. What you can do in and about the Owyhee Canyonlands Natural and cultural history of the area View a slide show of spectacular images from the greater Owyhee Canyonlands Photo of dialogue between Sierra Club members and cowboys at the 3rd Owyhee Rendezvous. Photo courtesy Tom von Alten, used with permission. Up to Top