Readers respond: Wyden must protect Owyhee Canyonlands

Recent reporting tells us that Sen. Ron Wyden believes the Owyhee Canyonlands will win legal protection this year. After decades of negotiation, legislative attempts and advocacy - from Indigenous communities, conservationists, hunters and anglers and others - this is a big deal. But we have to ask: is Wyden ready to deliver on his promises?

Indigenous people like me have had to watch as cultural site after cultural site has been devastated, despite commitments and pledges from U.S. government leadership. We fear the same fate for the Owyhee Canyonlands, which are the ancestral homeland of the Northern Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock peoples—if Wyden does not finally secure permanent protections, whether through his legislation or by asking President Joe Biden to designate the canyonlands as national monument.