Hiking, Boating, and Bombing - September/October 1996 - Sierra Magazine

Sierra Main

	September/October 1996 Features:
	Newt's Game
	A Chosen Few
	Does He Deserve Your Vote?
	Adios Amigos
	Natural Allies

	Departments:
	Letters
	Ways & Means
	Food for Thought
	Whereabouts
	Hearth & Home
	Way to Go
	Priorities
	Sierra Club Bulletin
	In Print
	Last Words

For readers who wouldn't set foot in a raft after reading "Adios Amigos," but would still like to experience the Owyhee, the Sierra Club's Middle Snake Group leads desert dayhikes through the Owyhee Canyonlands in the spring and fall. Contact Roger Singer, Sierra Club, P.O. Box 552, Boise ID 83701; (208) 384-1023.

The Bureau of Land Management can provide recreation maps and information. Write to the BLM at 100 E. Oregon St., Vale, OR 97918. Sierra Club Books offers The Sierra Club Guide to the Natural Areas of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming by John Perry and Jane Greverus Perry (1988). Also helpful is Sheldon Bluestein's Exploring Idaho's High Desert (Challenge Expedition Co., P.O. Box 1852, Boise, ID 83702; 1988), and (for those still undaunted) Idaho Whitewater by Greg Moore (Class Six Whitewater, P.O Box 1794, McCall, ID 83638; 1989).

Enhanced Training in Idaho (ETI), a proposal for a U.S. Air Force bombing range, has cast a shadow over more than 3 million acres of public land in Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon, including the Owyhee Canyonlands. If the Air Force has its way, the region's solitude--and its bighorn sheep, pronghorn, mule deer, and sage grouse--would be disrupted by some 30 bomber flights a day, each dropping its payload on "target" areas spread throughout the wild open spaces. Members of the Owyhee Canyonlands Coalition, including the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, Idaho Conservation League, and Snake River Alliance, are working to stop this military invasion. To help, contact the Sierra Club's Boise office at (208) 384-1023.

--Amy A. Flanders