Recently, there was a Bulletin article about saving the Owyhee Canyonlands. I would like to ask what you are saving it from? It is such a remote and hard land that it polices itself.

I was born and raised at Nyssa. When I turned 16 and could drive, I started running all over the Owyhees. I have been going there for 60 years. I have a deep love for it.

It is very frustrating that people go there and float the river and become authorities about how it should be managed. When floating the river you have seen approximately 7% of the Owyhees. And you saw the very best of what the Owyhees have to offer. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

The only time that there are people out there is during hunting season. If you go out there any other time, you will be alone. You will not see another person except maybe a ranch worker. You won’t see any car tracks on the road. The majority of time there is nothing out there. This is how it polices itself.

It hasn’t changed out there for a long, long time. And it won’t change because there is nothing to cause it to change. It is a desolate, dry country. You either love it or you hate it.

Leave it alone and everything will be fine.

— Dan Reece, Prineville