Owyhee Canyonlands

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BBC 尼尔•拉赛尔, 记者来鸿：美国牛仔 '土地争夺战' 鹿死谁手？BBC Chinese, Apr 8, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp ... w_threat_usa-cowboy

, which is translated from

Neal Razzell, A New Threat to the American Cowboy?  BBC, Apr 5, 2016.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35943598

Note:
(a) "the Owyhee Canyonlands of eastern Oregon * * * Settlers coming west in the 19th Century hit the Owyhee and turned right - hoping for, and finding, an easier route to the Pacific. A few flinty families like Nick's stayed through the generations and made ranching the Owyhee's main industry."
(i) For Owyhee Canyonlands, see Owyhee River
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owyhee_River
(section 3 History, section 3.1 Naming)
(A) In this Wiki page, view the map, and identify, besides Owyhee River, Snake River and Jordan Creek (which straddles Idaho-Oregon line).
(B) In the only map of the BBC (English) report, there is just one map whose heading is "Proposed Owyhee Canyonlands conservation area."

The azure does not represent water, but the proposed conservation area. Further, "Jordan Valley" marked in the map) is where Jordan Creek flows through. (Inexplicably, the same map in BBC Chinese report translates "Jordan Valley" as "乔丹瓦利"!  
Most likely the translator does not know this is a (river) valley.)
(ii) Good for those settlers to have turned back and succeeded in finding "an easier route to the Pacific."  Look at the map, and one can see Owyhee River runs clockwise and empties into Snake River. Eventually Oregon Trail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Trail
followed just part of Same River.
(A) "Starting in 1842–1843" (quoting the Wiki page for Oregon), Oregon Trail started bringing in settlers (to the Pacific).
(B) View the first map on the right (overview of Oregon Trail) and the first map on the left (showing details of Oregon Trail around Snake River. In the latter map, "Mexico" is marked where the present-day California stands.  This is because the map was drawn before or in 1846 (the section around the latter map discussed the 1846 Oregon Treaty (between UK and US). Mexican American War lasted Apr 25, 1846 – Feb 3, 1848. (Oregon was never part of Mexico, and US did not grab part of Oregon from Mexico.)

(b) An activist "wants President Obama to designate about two million acres of public land in the Owyhee - an area half the size of Wales - a park. Or, in the obscure American conservation vernacular, a monument."

National Parks, National Monuments, National Memorials, etc...What's the Difference?  Flow397 (a for-profit business), May 14, 2014.
https://flow397.com/blogs/news/3 ... hats-the-difference

The short answer is: It is hard to tell, and complicated.

(c) "It's estimated that Nick and the rest of Oregon's ranchers contribute about $1bn a year to the economy. The state's outdoor industry is estimated to contribute $12bn. So no prizes for guessing who has a bigger megaphone to make its case to the president."
(i) Fact Sheet on the BLM's Management of Livestock Grazing; Grazing on Public Lands. Bureau of Land Management, US Departent of the Interior, Feb 3, 2016
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/grazing.html
("The Bureau of Land Management, which administers about 245 million acres of public lands, manages livestock grazing on 155 million acres of those lands * * * The BLM administers nearly 18,000 permits and leases held by ranchers * * * Permits and leases generally cover a 10-year period and are renewable * * * In 2014, the BLM collected $12.1 million in grazing fees")
(ii) But sometimes ranchers do not pay fees for grazing on public lands. See, eg, Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oc ... nal_Wildlife_Refuge

The bundy family "accumulated more than $1 million of unpaid grazing fees and court-ordered fines."