Photo information (left to right): Steve McClelland – Manulife real estate & rangeland resource manager; Jon Paustian – ODFW Grande Ronde watershed wildlife habitat biologist; Christina Helige – Oregon Department of Forestry’s Forest Legacy Program administrator; Bill Richardson – RMEF senior conservation program manager – western; Amy Signh – US Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program manager Regions 6/10; Ruth Utzurrum – US Fish & Wildlife Service Region 1 office of conservation investment; David Kimbrough – Manulife managing director, acquisitions & dispositions
Conserve it and they shall come. And they flocked there on a late-spring day in northeast Oregon’s high country above the Minam River.
Representatives of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Manulife Investment Timber and Agriculture, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), elected officials, US Forest Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service representatives, Nez Perce tribal officials, other dignitaries, donors, sportsmen and women, RMEF members and volunteers, and the general public gathered to celebrate a land conservation and access project decades in the making. The two-part Minam River Acquisition, completed in late 2024, conserved and opened public access to a combined 15,573 acres of wildlife and riparian habitat.
“This landscape has been something that people and wildlife organizations have needed to conserve for future generations, and it finally came to fruition,” Jennifer Doherty, RMEF managing director of mission operations, told Elkhorn Media Group. “So, stopping and celebrating that together and recognizing the collaborative nature of getting something like this done is really important to the Elk Foundation and really important to the other entities involved in this project.”
The newly expanded Minam River Wildlife Area combined with the Eagle Cap Wilderness and surrounding public land stretching into Idaho and Washington creates a block of public land larger than Yellowstone National Park. Significant funding partners included ODFW, Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund, Oregon Hunters Association, RMEF members, RMEF and hunters, thanks to dollars generated by the Pittman-Robertson Act, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Among other festivities, Manulife presented RMEF (see above photo) and all other project partners with awards for dedication to the partnership and conservation of critical wildlife habitat.
“Whether you’re camping with your family or backpacking and fishing or hunting, it can be difficult to find a place to go and to access. The Minam River area is very accessible. The perpetual ownership that has been created through the acquisition into the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s hands creates the mandate that this is available to be utilized by the public for responsible recreation and in a way that provides a quality experience, which is what we’re really all looking for out there,” Doherty told Elkhorn Media Group.
One month earlier, RMEF members joined other volunteers for a two-day habitat enhancement project that included forest thinning, conifer removal and pulling 3.5 miles of fencing off the landscape.
That’s good news for elk, mule deer, black bears, many other wildlife and fish species, and for hunters, anglers, hikers and others to enjoy the land. And more good news may be on the way as RMEF is working on a third phase of the Minam project.
(Photo credit: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)