Idaho’s Owyhee canyonlands in the Air Force crosshairs again

Through the 1990s, I reported on Air Force efforts to expand its pilot training facilities in southwestern Idaho. People opposed the expansion plans because they threatened livelihoods, recreation and wildlife. They forced the Air Force to abandon the proposal.

Continued opposition forced the Air Force and state officials to reveal a second proposal. In the end it, too, failed. A third surprise proposal grew from that, but public opposition and legal challenges brought it to a halt, almost. Congress began meddling in the public process, and the Air Force finally got its $30 million range.

Some issues remained unsettled, however, including four pending lawsuits. Rather than fight them out in court, the Air Force and the plaintiffs agreed to work out a settlement. Environmentalists and Air Force officials negotiated a resolution that was good for the environment and good for the Air Force. Or so it seemed.

The agreement imposed some restrictions to protect vulnerable wildlife, and the people who make their livelihood and recreate in the wilds of Owyhee County. The restrictions on Air Force training operation included no supersonic flights below 10,000 feet about ground level, and limits on low-level flights over sensitive wildlife areas and areas during periods of heavy recreational use. With the agreement signed, the lawsuits were dismissed.

Now, however, the Air Force apparently wants to disregard this legal settlement, made in good faith. But then it would not be the first time the Air Force has acted in bad faith in regard to pilot training in this part of Idaho. In the course of the three proposals, Air Force and Pentagon officials lied to Congress, to the people of Idaho and to the American people. Those officials undermined the public trust.

Opposition to the first Saylor Creek Bombing Range expansion proposal started with a historic handshake when rancher Randall Brewer and environmentalist Randy Morris agreed to work together to defeat the Air Force proposal. Over the next decade, people learned how to work together to protect a part of Idaho they all valued.

They put those lessons to good use. In the years since the settlement was signed, the people and government officials of Owyhee Country worked with ranchers, environmentalists, recreational interests and others to resolve some long-standing and growing resource conflicts. Their efforts produced a broadly supported agreement in 2006 and federal legislation in 2009.

Because of their efforts, the Owyhee River canyonlands still belong to the wildlife, and still deserve reverence. Here anyone can find solitude, humility and in a good water year, a decent long canoe trip. It remains profoundly quiet, a place of inspiration, a place that can focus the mind and renew the spirit, a place where ancient warriors still whisper in the wind.

The latest Air Force proposal threatens those values.