A decade ago, it would have been hard to get Shoshone-Paiute cultural leader Ted Howard, sagebrush rebel Mike Hanley and environmentalists like Idaho Rivers United leader Bill Sedivy in the same room.

But Tuesday, they and other ranchers, conservationists, local officials, state legislators and federal officials crowded into the Boise photography gallery of Mark Lisk - surrounded by his stunning images of the Owyhee Canyonlands they had worked together to protect. They gathered with Republican Sen. Mike Crapo to celebrate the passage of the law that protects 517,000 acres of wilderness and 315 miles of wild and scenic rivers while preserving the ranching and Indian cultures that have sunk roots as deep as the canyons.

Howard said a prayer in the Shoshone language that has been spoken for thousands of years, reminding the participants of the millennia his people roamed the region alone.

"This place is still a very sacred place for us," Howard said. "But it's no longer quiet."

The rapid population growth in the Treasure Valley has brought swarms of visitors on all-terrain vehicles and large sport-utility vehicles and trucks to the once-deserted area, Howard said. Both Howard and Hanley said the tribal and rancher support for the legislation grew out of the shared fears of "too much of a good thing."

"The resources will do fine on their own," Howard said. "It's the people we have to manage."

The Owyhee canyons, highlands and mountains harbor rare plants and desert bighorn sheep - as well as hardy boaters, ranchers and Indians. Hunters chase deer, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, sage grouse and chukars. Motorcylists bounce through the dry washes along the Owyhee Front.

Until eight years ago, they fought over the landscape each held dear. Then, Owyhee County convened the group that wrote the bill. Hanley was one of westerners who fought federal control of the public lands in the "Sagebrush Rebellion" of the 1980s.

"A long time ago my ancestors and Ted Howard's ancestors were shooting at each other," Hanley said.

But when they all started talking they found they had a common respect for the land. Sedivy, from Idaho Rivers United, rejoiced in the protection of the Bruneau River, first identified as a potential wild and scenic river in 1968 when Idaho Sen. Frank Church authored the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. But he also acknowledged what Hanley and other ranchers wanted from environmentalists: their right to be there.

"It will give ranchers and Owyhee County residents some of the economic certainty they've been seeking for years," Sedivy said.

The land trades, sales and private buy-outs that provide the ranchers with their end of the bargain are still to come from the Bureau of Land Management and from private money raised and committed by environmental groups. A science review center also must get federal funding.

Tom Dyer, the BLM state director, said his agency is committed to completing the deal.

"We have some tough rows to hoe on implementation, but if we approach it as a family, we can get it done," Dyer said.

Fred Grant, the private property rights advocate who prompted Owyhee County to start this whole process, said the work before them is nothing like what it took to bring them together.

"The hard work was getting people to speak to people they didn't speak with and to get them to negotiate together," Grant said.

The celebration was a stark contrast to hearings held this year in the Idaho Legislature - even as recently as Monday - over bighorn sheep management. Rural lawmakers, frustrated with Forest Service decisions to protect wild bighorn sheep that could push sheep ranchers out of Hells Canyon, expressed anger at environmentalists seeking a similar collaborative process for resolving that dispute.

Still, Republican Sen. Bert Brackett, an Owyhee County rancher who is involved in both issues, joined Tuesday's celebration.

"Things like this give you hope," he said.

Rocky Barker: 377-6484