Steens Mountain Silver Jubilee, Part 1: Lead-Up to the Grand Bargain

This is the first in a series of two Public Lands Blog posts that examine the history of the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act, which became law on October 30, 2000. Part 1 recounts the creation of the grand bargain, while Part 2 will detail its specifics.

Top Line: At the turn of this century, the political stars aligned to legislatively protect Steens Mountain for the benefit of this and future generations.

Figure 1. Steens Mountain summit. Source: Gary Halvorson, Oregon Archives.

“I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.”

—Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)

What follows is a very first-person (and quarter-century-later) account, written at the suggestion of the Oregon Natural Desert Association, of the enactment into law of the Steens Act of 2000. With others, I was instrumental (I once tried modesty, but it didn’t look good on me, so I gave it up) in this enactment. The public lands conservation heroes of Steens Mountain and the Alvord Desert were many, and I mention several (and have forgotten others) here.

The Monumental Threat/Opportunity

In 1999, Bruce Babbitt was nearing the end of his eight-year stint as secretary of the interior. As his boss, Bill Clinton, was term-limited, so was Babbitt, and both had their legacies on their minds. Babbitt decided that national monuments were a good thing for both him and his boss to leave more of.

Figure 2. Bruce Babbitt in 2019. Source: Gage Skidmore, Wikipedia.

Though it’s not in his Wikipedia entry, a young Babbitt spent a short time studying at the University of Oregon and took geology. That’s where he first heard of Steens Mountain, far to the east of rainy Eugene in the Oregon portion of the Sagebrush Sea.

Babbitt, the astute politician, was willing to expend some of Clinton’s political capital proclaiming a Steens Mountain National Monument. At the same time, the secretary thought he could leverage the monumental threat/opportunity (it all depends upon your perspective) by urging/threatening (again, perspective) the Oregon congressional delegation to legislatively protect Steens Mountain so Clinton’s political capital could be expended for conservation elsewhere. The public lands conservation community lined up (albeit reluctantly) for a national monument, while the public lands grazing industry lined up against one.

The ranchers’ worst fears of a Clintonian national monument were greater than the conservation community’s best hopes for one. The ranchers feared that a national monument proclamation would be too hard on livestock grazing, while the enviros feared it would be too easy on the bovine bulldozers. Both camps were motivated to pursue legislation, and the Oregon congressional delegation was motivated to deliver it.

Figure 3. Kiger Gorge on Steens Mountain, in the Steens Mountain Wilderness and Wildhorse and Kiger Creeks Wild and Scenic River. Source: Austin Schaefer, Wikipedia.

The Geopolitical Landscape

Steens Mountain (elevation 9,750 feet) is a towering fault block that rises more than a mile above the Alvord Desert (elevation 4,000 to 4,200 feet). From the summit of Steens, the view to the east is dominated by the playa that is the Alvord Desert. From the playa looking westward, the view is wall-to-wall Steens. Besides being aesthetically intertwined, these two landmarks are ecologically interconnected. Every time Babbitt or anyone else said, “Steens,” the conservation community would reply, “Steens-Alvord.” Enviros wanted to save not only the iconic mountain but also the iconic desert to the east of it.

These conservation organizations informally formed the Steens-Alvord Coalition:

• Oregon Natural Desert Association

• Oregon Chapter Sierra Club

• The Wilderness Society

• Oregon Trout (today Freshwater Trust)

• Audubon Society of Portland (today Bird Alliance of Oregon)

• Oregon Natural Resources Council (today Oregon Wild)

• American Lands Alliance (deceased)

• Oregon Wildlife Federation (deceased)

• Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited

• Native Plant Society of Oregon

The key players—and eventual heroes for Steens Mountain—in the Oregon congressional delegation were senior senator Ron Wyden (D), junior senator Gordon Smith (R), Representative Greg Walden (R-2nd), and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-4th). While the Democrats leaned green and the Republicans leaned brown, the parties were able to come together because both the enviros and the public lands ranchers preferred a legislative solution over a Clintonian national monument. It was a case of the national public interest versus local special interests.

There were actually many local stakeholders (including public lands ranchers, off-road vehicle users, and county government), and the interests of these respective local stakeholders could conflict. For example, public lands ranchers didn’t care for off-road vehicle use on their public lands grazing allotments, as operators were known to leave gates open, cut fences, harass livestock, and such. Still, all the local interests coalesced behind monument opposition leaders with livestock grazing interests.

That was because these stakeholders were led by more than mere public lands ranchers; they were land barons. Not only did these land barons control a large acreage of public lands grazing allotments, but they also owned huge amounts of private land. Of all the local stakeholders, these land barons were the most powerful—they wore the biggest buckles and the largest cowboy hats and flew around in helicopters or small planes.

Figure 4. Donner und Blitzen Wild and Scenic River. Source: Northwest Rafting Company.

The Negotiations: “Get Me Kerr,” Then “Anybody But Kerr,” Then “Kerr, Get Over Here” 

In that summer of 1999, I was living in Joseph, Oregon, at the base of the Wallowa Mountains. Three years previous, I’d retired after twenty years on the front lines with the Oregon Natural Resources Council (now Oregon Wild). The Burns District BLM called and asked me to come  to Burns because Bruce Babbitt wanted to see me (and others). I explained that I was no longer lobbying, represented no conservation organization, and was—among other things—writing a book (Oregon Desert Guide: 70 Hikes, published by Mountaineers Books in 2000). No matter, said the BLMer, Babbitt specifically was asking for me. As I would soon be doing another round of field research for the book, what harm would it do to stop by and see the secretary?

Matters progressed, and The Wilderness Society contracted with me to work on Steens-Alvord. The notion was to develop a consensus piece of legislation agreed to by the major stakeholders that the Oregon congressional delegation would enact into law before Clinton left office in January 2001.

Easier said than done. First a BLM advisory committee whose jurisdiction included Steens Mountain took a stab at a consensus and failed.

Then Governor John Kitzhaber (D) convened the parties for the same end. As my reputation/legend had preceded me, the ranchers said they wouldn’t sit at the same table as me. Kitzhaber, who had similar disdain for me (long—and great—story, best told over a beer), didn’t invite me to his party. Nor would he invite Bill Marlett, then head of the Oregon Natural Desert Association. I daresay no two conservationists knew more about the Steens-Alvord eco-socio-political landscape than the two of us. Kitzhaber’s attempt failed as well.

The congressional and presidential countdown clocks were ticking, and there was still no agreement. A presidential proclamation was increasingly likely. Both sides feared the language would not be to their benefit.

In the summer of 2000, Wyden staffer David Blair, who was based in Bend, convened a very small group of necessary parties in a last-ditch effort to forge legislation acceptable to both sides. Blair—along with Walden staffer Lindsay Slater—summoned Marlett and myself into talks with the two leading land barons: Stacey Davies and Fred Otley. The talks, which lasted several days, were hosted by the Roaring Springs Ranch, which Stacey managed, in the Catlow Valley at the western base of Steens Mountain. During the talks, other land barons would come by to negotiate their own respective subdeals that became part of the grand bargain. Also at the talks were the BLM district and area managers, who were limited to answering questions as under the Hatch Act they couldn’t be part of developing legislation.

Each evening, to decompress from that day and plot for the next, Marlett and I would retreat to the home of Alice and Cal Elshoff, who were living on a ranch property near Frenchglen that had recently been acquired by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to become part of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The government had been limited to paying the appraised value, and the owners had wanted more. Cal and Alice had come up with the difference in exchange for being able to live on the property for several years. Cal and Alice also did countless hours of volunteer work for and on the refuge. The Elshoff Compound was our refuge on the refuge.

Figure 5. Fish Lake, at 7,400 feet of elevation on Steens Mountain. Source: Bonnie Moreland, Flickr.

The Grand Bargain: Not a Collaboration, But a Negotiation

As was in vogue at the time for public land disputes, what became the Steens grand bargain was characterized by many as a “collaboration.” A common narrative of such was that intractable foes would come together and talk, learn from each other, understand each other, even get to like each other, and then develop a solution, after which hosannas would be sung in three-part harmony (our side, their side, and the government side).

The reality is that rather than a collaboration, the Steens grand bargain was a hard-fought negotiation for every acre, conservation designation, and legislative provision. The trick was to give the land barons things they wanted very much but about which enviros cared less, little, or not at all, in exchange for the enviros getting things we very much wanted. This was all done under the looming specter of a national monument designation, where neither side knew how good/bad it would be for them.

The substance of what would become the Steens Act of 2000 was agreed to at the base of Steens Mountain by six people: politicos Blair and Slater, land barons Davies and Otley, and enviros Marlett and Kerr. Each side knew what their constituencies could not live without and could live with. Each side gave until it hurt. Even the title of the act, the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act, was a compromise. (At least it’s “Cooperative” and not “Collaborative.”) However, the gains were worth the pains.

A deal was struck, and the Oregon congressional delegation shepherded it into a bill that President Clinton signed into law.

Figure 6. Mickey Hot Springs, no longer threatened with geothermal exploitation. Source: Bureau of Land Management.

Success Has Many Parents

These other individuals were also instrumental in bringing the Steens Act into law:

• Amelia Jenkins, staff of Rep. DeFazio

• Jill Workman, Oregon Chapter Sierra Club

• Jim Myron, Oregon Trout

• Peter Green, aide to Gov. Kitzhaber

• Rick Brown, Conservation Science Support Center

• Bob Freimark, The Wilderness Society

• Mollie McUsic, staff of Sec. Babbitt

I apologize to those I’ve left off (except the one who thinks they were instrumental but were not). I didn’t list President Clinton, as even though he signed the Act of Congress, it was not important enough to get a mention in his quite voluminous memoir.

Figure 7. Wildhorse Lake and Little Wildhorse Lake in Wildhorse Gorge on Steens Mountain, in the Steens Mountain Wilderness and the Wildhorse and Kiger Creeks Wild and Scenic River. Source: Mary Anne Whitney-Hall, Flickr.

Part 2 will quantify the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Steens grand bargain.

For More Information

Bureau of Land Management. 2025. Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area (web page).

Gunter, Tara Rae. 2001. Steens Mountain Divide: Beyond Compromise in the Oregon High Desert. University of Montana ScholarWorks.

Kerr, Andy. 2006. “The Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act of 2000” in “Collaborative Conservation Strategies: Legislative Case Studies from Across the West,” Western Governors’ Association white paper.

Oregon Natural Desert Association. Visitor’s Guide to Steens Mountain Region (web page).