The sweeping lands bill that includes the Owyhee Canyonlands and another 170 public land designations is expected to finally pass the House and go to President Barack Obama Tuesday or Wednesday.

Republican Idaho U.S. Sen Mike Crapo, the man who carried the Owyhees collaborative initiative for eight years, was the floor manager as it passed the Senate as an amendment to another proposal, demonstrating his commitment to preserve wilderness and ranching in Owyhee County.

So now that the Owyhees bill is nearly done, will another Idaho wilderness bill come soon? It may depend on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter Carole King.

In all of these recent legislative machinations, Crapo and Reps. Mike Simpson, a Republican, and Walt Minnick, a Democrat, were looking for opportunities to insert the Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill into the mix. But opening the bill up proved to be too complicated and Idaho's other major wilderness legislation will have to wait.

The passage of Owyhee Canyonlands wilderness - 517,000 acres of it - would end the drought that began when Larry Craig came to represent Idaho in 1980 and lasted until he left. But Craig's exit doesn't mean smooth sailing for future Idaho wilderness bills.

King, a devoted wilderness advocate, opposes the Boulder-White Clouds bill in part because it removes a major chunk of wilderness from her own Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. Simpson's Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act would protect more than 300,000 acres of wilderness in the Boulder-White Clouds. King's bill would protect more than 450,000 acres.

Overall, the Northern Rockies bill would protect more than 23 million acres of the region in wilderness and other designations. But since it was first introduced nearly 20 years ago, it has gone nowhere.

The strategy was to gain national support and roll over the congressmen in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, but that flies in the face of how Congress does business. Only rarely has such a strategy succeeded, with civil rights the most obvious example.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies Executive Director Michael Garrity said supporters of the Northern Rockies bill are not naive.

"We know how sausage is made," he said.

But they believe they have a chance to get the bill to the House floor for a vote this year because they have the support of House leadership, the House Resources Committee and 69 co-sponsors. King has spent the past decade campaigning all over America for Democratic House candidates and her supporters hope this may be the year their bill passes.

As big as the current lands bill is, it designates a total of only about 2 million acres. If King succeeds in bottling up Simpson's bill, which has the support of Wilderness Society and the Idaho Conservation League, it may be that future wilderness in Idaho and Montana will have to await the passage of her Northern Rockies bill, which without the support of at least Montana's Democratic senators and Minnick is unlikely.

Rocky Barker: 377-6484