The Bureau of Land Management's National Conservation Lands include 25 national monuments in nine western states. These national monuments encompass landscapes of tremendous beauty and diversity, ranging from rugged coastline to vividly hued desert canyons. The Federal Government is currently considering designating approximately 2-million acres in Eastern Oregon as the Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument. This proposal represents one of the largest conservation opportunities in the United States.

There are a number of sites on the Internet where you can find detailed information, as well has heated opinions, both in favor and against, on this proposal. An informative brochure prepared by the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA), a primary sponsor of the proposal, is available at: https://onda.org/publications/brochures ... s-brochure

If you review the proposal, you will note that a number of recreational activities are promoted within the proposed Conservation Area, such rafting, hiking and backpacking, horseback riding, hunting and fishing, and wildlife viewing. Conspicuously absent, at least to us pilots, is any mention of access by aircraft. A number of backcountry landing areas exist within the proposed Conservation Area and it is important that access to these be protected.

Ongoing discussions with ONDA have been positive and the idea of maintaining aviation access is certainly on the table. We strongly believe that the RAF mission is completely compatible with the proposal. The RAF Code of Conduct recognizes the importance of protecting the environment and the rights of all users to enjoy their personal experience in the backcountry.

In order for the RAF to protect continued access to these backcountry landing areas for pilots, we need your help. Please take the time to express your support to our elected officials and to the Secretary of the Interior. Your message doesn’t need to be long or complex; simply state your desire for continued access by aircraft and pilots to the public lands within the proposed Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument.

Senator Ron Wyden https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact
Senator Jeff Merkley https://www.merkley.senate.gov/contact
Representative Greg Walden https://walden.house.gov/contact-greg/email-me
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell: https://www.doi.gov/feedback

I hope you can take a few minutes to express your concerns on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Richard Mayes, Oregon State Liaison
Recreational Aviation Foundation

I don't know what it might take to set up on the RAF website, but I think it was AOPA who during the PBR2 push had a webpage where you could sign on and they would send out emails to the appropriate officials in your name. Maybe not as much impact with the receiving parties, but a lazy SOB like myself would be much more likely to do that than to follow through on emailing (or even worse, snail-mailing) multiple officials.

Windknot54 wrote:The Bureau of Land Management's National Conservation Lands include 25 national monuments in nine western states. These national monuments encompass landscapes of tremendous beauty and diversity, ranging from rugged coastline to vividly hued desert canyons. The Federal Government is currently considering designating approximately 2-million acres in Eastern Oregon as the Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument. This proposal represents one of the largest conservation opportunities in the United States.

There are a number of sites on the Internet where you can find detailed information, as well has heated opinions, both in favor and against, on this proposal. An informative brochure prepared by the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA), a primary sponsor of the proposal, is available at: https://onda.org/publications/brochures ... s-brochure

If you review the proposal, you will note that a number of recreational activities are promoted within the proposed Conservation Area, such rafting, hiking and backpacking, horseback riding, hunting and fishing, and wildlife viewing. Conspicuously absent, at least to us pilots, is any mention of access by aircraft. A number of backcountry landing areas exist within the proposed Conservation Area and it is important that access to these be protected.

Ongoing discussions with ONDA have been positive and the idea of maintaining aviation access is certainly on the table. We strongly believe that the RAF mission is completely compatible with the proposal. The RAF Code of Conduct recognizes the importance of protecting the environment and the rights of all users to enjoy their personal experience in the backcountry.

In order for the RAF to protect continued access to these backcountry landing areas for pilots, we need your help. Please take the time to express your support to our elected officials and to the Secretary of the Interior. Your message doesn’t need to be long or complex; simply state your desire for continued access by aircraft and pilots to the public lands within the proposed Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument.

Senator Ron Wyden https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact
Senator Jeff Merkley https://www.merkley.senate.gov/contact
Representative Greg Walden https://walden.house.gov/contact-greg/email-me
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell: https://www.doi.gov/feedback

I hope you can take a few minutes to express your concerns on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Richard Mayes, Oregon State Liaison
Recreational Aviation Foundation

Do you have a template available that is effective for writing our representatives and hits the more powerful points of our advocacy? I know it sounds lazy, but many of us are pretty saturated in our daily lives and carving out a half hour to write and send messages presents a greater obstacle than simply cutting, pasting, editing and sending a message.

What I have to add may be out of date in this "digital" age. I once collected signatures on paper petitions to keep a couple of fun and challenging strips open just east and south of San Jose from an impending "wilderness" close-out blanket. I got more signatures than expected. Even got an appointment with some Ca. Capital official who was in charge. I got there and explained our position. (my first solo gov. try)
All the person did was to point to a stack of INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL PAPER LETTERS and tell me that each one of those letters was worth more than 100 pages of petitions. Left discouraged - wilderness passed.

I write this to say that even if you do/can get a template - TRY TO PERSONALIZE THEM a bit.

Best hope I have seen is that the "man" seems to be paying attention to an overloaded e-mail in box these days. Hope it works.

Don't lay it all of on others - RAF - It may be they know, through experience, how to initiate contact without emotion and rage, (my usual start) but we need to give them all the support we can.

Gotta go - eye drops are intruding on my vision. Hope this does not come across as a rant. Just hoping for the best all around. Chris C

Chris has hit the nail squarely on the head. Petitions get little to no attention from elected officials precisely because they demonstrate the signers' lack of personal interest and commitment. How many meaningless petitions have you signed in front of some store just to escape from the petitioner? Sending a personal message does get the attention of the elected officials. Your message is logged, acknowledged, printed and catalogued for consideration. Normally, on politically (i.e. media) sensitive issues such as this, you will receive a response.

I promise you that you can send messages to the four listed officials in less than 30-minutes. The preferred method of contact is now email, not snail mail. Go to the listed links, enter a bit of information about yourself (so you will receive a response), and leave your message. You can copy the message to your clipboard and past to each subsequent message. Leaving the same message to all four is acceptable.

The message is simple: access to public lands by private aviation is important to you. As a pilot you want to preserve access to Owyhee Canyonlands similar to that guaranteed other users, such as private vehicle drivers, OHV operators, boaters, horseback riders, etc. so that you can also enjoy the backcountry experience. In my case I point out that Eastern Oregon is quite remote. Some of the remote areas of SE Oregon I visit take me more than 6-hours to drive to, but only it takes only 1.5-hours to fly there, thereby, allowing me to utilize the area more regularly.

Give it a try. It's an opportunity to participate in the democratic process, and it's a cause worth the effort.

oregonians should be careful of what they wish for... another federal land grab... the federal gov't already owns practically the entire state of Nevada... and a good portion of Kalifornia... along with that comes a ton of regulation and law enforcement...and in our case exclusion if they can pull it off....sorry just my opinion ....

Sounds like the Feds already own it.
Now it's just a matter of if they want to keep it just plain old BLM land or turn it into a National Monument.
If they go that route, it'd probably be easier to work on them to continue to allow aviation access than to stop the process completely.

The area under consideration are public lands managed by the BLM. There is no 'land grab' involved. The public includes you; the lands are for your use and mine.

The question currently at hand is: do you want continued aviation access to these lands, or are you going to sit on the sidelines and watch our access be eliminated. We have lost hundreds, if not thousands, of aircraft landing areas across the US since the 1980's. It's time to take a stand to protect what we have left and, hopefully, recover some of the lost ones.

well this will be my last post on the subject as it is border line hot air topic... but if you have state land administered and controlled by the federal government then what do you call it...oregon just had a major incident involving federal control with BLM lands... remember...

I always write a letter from scratch. It sucks the time but it allows me to let the congressperson know that I'm a voter with an ounce of brain, and that this particular topic may make or break my vote for him or her in the future.

Monumental Link

http://wilderness.org/article/how-we-de ... -monuments


There may be more - seems to me that the last one in the Kalif. deserts ELIMINATED vehicle traffic.
Easy for me to not remember right.


IF, we still have access - in the past Idaho fights it paid off if someone was keeping up some maint.
Also mattered that there was some "recent" legal landings.

There are several preliminary "titles" for programs that STOP public access long before the official
WILDERNESS designation. Can not remember them all Just trying to get more info out.

Situational Awareness all.

Trim

CH 7 news (KTVB) had an article about it this morning. Apparently there was a public meeting in Jordan Valley over the weekend, all the locals oppose it, the congressman from that district opposes it, congress is not taking any action at this time to move it forward, but the environmental groups are in favor of it (of course), and Obama can declare it a national monument at any time with no input from anyone.

I sent an email to my Congressman in New Mexico (if you don't live in Oregon, you can't send to them). I will send the same email to Sally Jewell today.

Our friends in the area attended the meeting in Jordan Valley. While airplane access is not addressed in the information we have and is certainly a concern, our friends say the reason for this is to push out the ranchers (no cattle allowed). He said the people of the area had a vote on the issue and 90 % opposed making these 2 million acres into a Monument. He also said this is being supported by the CEO of a big company based in Portland - the Keen company that makes shoes.

The problem is that very few people live in that part of Oregon and essentially have no say on matters like this!

Giggled KEEN shoes: Definitely on the soft shoe side.

First item to show up on google was "KEEN shoes at REI"

Check yer closets.

Trim

On the bright side, in both Washington (Lake Isabel) and Montana (Missouri Breaks), where pilots were willing to take the time to make an input, we did manage to preserve airstrips (water landings in the case of Isabel) in designated wilderness areas.

So just a vote for everyone taking a few minutes to support. I will.

Emails sent to all 4 contacts. This is an important issue. The process of democracy requires participation. I'm willing to do my part. Make your voice heard! Thanks for the heads up!

Does the Owyhee Reservoir state airport lie inside the proposed national monument area?

Owyhee Reservoir State airport (28U) is in the honeycombs wilderness study area.

I have emailed all of the officials listed in the original post.

Another angle that I think is worthwhile in reaching lawmakers regarding these matters is safety. In remote regions, it adds tremendously to our safety as aviators to have more landing options in the event of an in flight emergency.