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Owyhee Monument Proposal Legacy Landscape

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Owyhee Monument Proposal Legacy Landscape Legacy Landscape O v e r v i e w Preface here the remote corners of Idaho, Oregon and Nevada come together lies one of the most unique and spectacular high desert areas remaining in the continental United WStates. This region, known as the Owyhee - Bruneau Canyonlands, represents one of the last best examples of the wide-open country which once characterized the American West. Consisting of high sagebrush and grassland plateaus incised by deep, sheer-walled river canyons and mountains dominated by juniper woodlands, the Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands stretch across an area twice the size of Yellowstone National Park. Home to some of the nation’s rarest fish, wildlife, and plant species, scientific assessments have rated the region one of the most bio- logically rich and diverse high deserts in the country. Humans have been part of the Owyhee country for over 15,000 years—resulting in the richest concentration of archaeological sites in Idaho. It is also one of the greatest contiguous landscapes of historical and cultural significance in the West. The unique geologic, biologic, and historic resources of the Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands lend the region to protection as a national monument under the Antiquities Act. This docu- ment was prepared to compile the wide range of scientific information identifying the national- ly significant values of this land and to put forth the argument for monument designation. Focusing on the geology, paleontology, landscape ecology, biology, archaeology, history, and cul- ture of the Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands, this document also presents a picture of the threats posed to these values and the landscape as a whole. If not addressed, these threats will erode away the resources of these canyonlands and an irreplaceable part of our national heritage will be lost. O w y he e - B r u ne au Cany o n l a nds: Legacy Land s c a p e Page i Credits This report was produced by the The Wilderness Society, American Lands, The Committee for Idaho’s High Desert, and the Sierra Club. Text written and edited by Douglas Schnitzspahn Researchers: Katie Fite, Kathy Moore, Mike Medberry, Douglas Schnitzspahn Maps: Conservation Geography and Amy Haak Layout and design: Erik Kingston/OK Corral Productions Special thanks to Geoff Webb and the Wyss Foundation, Mike Medberry, Chris Murphy, Spencer Wood, and Mark Plew. Photo Credits Photographs generously donated by: Photographers Pages Idaho Department of Fish and Game . .cover/31/32/34-36 Conservation Data Center (IDFG) . .1/23/25 Steve Bly . .cover/i/57 Katie Fite . .2/9/17/18/24/26/27/41/55/56 Craig Gehrke . .cover/5/39/40 Amy Haak . .47 Mark Lisk . .7/11 Mike Medberry . .3/19 Page i i O w y he e - B r u neau C any o n l a nds: Legacy Land s c a p e Table of Contents Preface ..............................................................................................................i Credits ................................................................................................................ii Table of Contents ................................................................................................iii Introduction ........................................................................................................1 Cataclysmic Origins .....................................................................................................1 Flourishing Sage Steppe and Canyons ............................................................................1 A Dynamic Cultural Landscape ......................................................................................2 Threats and Protection ................................................................................................3 Significant Values—15 Key Points .................................................................................4 Geography ...........................................................................................................5 Desert Defined by Rivers ..............................................................................................5 Landscape Level Management .......................................................................................6 Geology and Paleontology ......................................................................................9 Geology .....................................................................................................................9 Labyrinthine Rhyolite Canyonlands ................................................................................9 Paleontology ............................................................................................................13 Landscape Ecology ..............................................................................................17 What Sagebrush Steppe Habitat Can, Could, and Should Look Like ...................................17 Biology .............................................................................................................23 Flora .......................................................................................................................23 Fauna ......................................................................................................................29 Archaeology .......................................................................................................39 The Richest Complex of Sites in Idaho .........................................................................39 Only a Fraction of the Resources Present ......................................................................40 The Camas and Pole Creek Archaeological District ..........................................................41 The Bruneau-Jarbidge ................................................................................................42 Shoshone and Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation .......................................45 History ..............................................................................................................47 Stories in Stone ........................................................................................................47 Camas, Salmon, and Horses ........................................................................................49 Trappers, Trails, and War ............................................................................................50 Solitude and Space .............................................................................................55 The Sagebrush Ocean .................................................................................................55 Space as a Value .......................................................................................................56 Conclusions ........................................................................................................57 O w y he e - B r u neau Cany o n l a nds: Legacy Land s c a p e Page i i i Page i v O w y he e - B r u neau C any o n l a nds: Legacy Land s c a p e Introduction tretching over 2.7 million acres of BLM managed land in Southwest Idaho, the Owyhee- Bruneau Canyonlands encompass one of the largest intact and unprotected desert ecosys- Stems in the West, a vast landscape of rhyolite canyons that cut through oceans of sage- brush and rugged breaks buzzing with diverse biotic communities (see “The Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands: Southwest Idaho Location” map). Just a few hours drive from the rapidly grow- ing urban center of Boise, this vast and biologically lush desert, filled with remnants of the peo- ple who have lived here for thousands of years according to natural cycles, still retains an undis- turbed sense of peace. The ecosystems of the Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands are fragile, howev- er, and without the type of comprehensive landscape level protection provided by national monument status the incredible geological, paleontological, biological, and cultural values of this last enclave of the sagebrush ocean – with its expansive steppes and mazes of canyons – will be fractured, degraded, and destroyed. Cataclysmic Origins Violent geological forces first molded this place around 14 million years ago. The shifting Yellowstone hot spot first erupted in the area where Idaho, Oregon and Nevada meet, spewing gigantic clouds of volcanic ash into the air. When these superheated billows of ash reached the ground, they cooled into masses of welded rhy- olitic tuffs characteristic of the Owyhee region. Shifting slowly northeast, the rhyolite caldera blew again, about 11 million years ago, in the Bruneau region, belching more molten rhyolite and leaving basalt shield volcanoes in its wake. After this turbulence, massive Lake Idaho began to form, flooding the volcanic crescent of the Snake River Plain. As time passed, the climate grew moist and cool; plants and animals, some long-extinct like the saber-toothed salmon and the scimitar-toothed cat, flourished in and around this series of ancient lakes just north of the eruptions. The fossils of these creatures are still visible in a series of extraordinary exposed strata found only in the Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands. Nearly a million years ago in a prolonged flood, Lake Idaho drained out Hells Canyon, and, as the water level dropped, the mouths of the Owyhee, Bruneau, and Jarbidge Rivers and their tributaries began to erode headwards, carving a fantastic labyrinth of canyons in the thick layers of igneous deposits. These gargantuan natural forces left a network of exposed rhyolitic forma- tions found nowhere else in the
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