Ramona DeNies

Outside profile

In August 2015, four marketing professionals drove a bright yellow 1976 GMC RV named Teddy north from Nevada into the Owyhee Canyonlands—an area larger than Yellowstone, tucked into Oregon’s sparsely inhabited southeastern corner. As employees of Portland footwear company Keen, their mission was to generate public support for a decade-long grassroots campaign to protect the 2.5-million-acre swath of volcanic moonscapes, redrock canyons, bighorn sheep, and pristine rivers with a national monument designation by documenting its beauty (and yes, probably sell a few shoes in the process). But when this remote quarter of America finally garnered the nation’s attention six months later, it was for the armed occupiers who took over the neighboring Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in a statement against federal land protections.

As President Obama left office, the West's largest intact tract of wilderness remained vulnerable to industrial development. The wildlife refuge occupation rekindled strong anti-public land sentiment and, in Washington, a new Congress aiming to rewrite the rulebook on public lands may open the area to mining, petrochemical, and other interests with a simple vote. These are worrying developments for the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA), a leading member of a coalition of conservation groups and advocates that includes the Pew Charitable trusts, the Sierra Club, and the Wilderness Society. And with the current political climate, they’ll likely have to find a new path forward. But as these photos show, protecting the Owyhee’s primal grandeur is worth the effort.

Water Sports

The Lonely Beauty of the West’s Largest Unprotected Wilderness

Obama was supposed to safeguard Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands with a National Monument designation, but when that didn’t happen, its supporters were left wondering. What’s next?

Ramona DeNies

Published: Mar 23, 2017