OCTOBER 27, 2016 // 7
Author to speak about the Owyhee canyonlands
ASTORIA — Members
of the public will have a
special opportunity to take
a vicarious journey with
author Bonnie Olin into one
of the most remote areas in
the lower 48 states — the
Owyhee canyonlands in
southeast Oregon — by way
of a talk, slideshow and ilm.
The presentation will take
place at 6 p.m. Thursday,
Nov. 3 at the Astoria Public
Library, located at 450 10th
St. If you are an outdoor
enthusiast or an armchair
adventurer, you won’t want
to miss seeing the Owyhee,
because you won’t ind
yourself there on the way to
anywhere else.
The Owyhee is a desert
region that spans the border
of Idaho, Oregon and a
small part of Nevada. Cen-
tered on the Owyhee River
and the Owyhee Mountains,
the region covers an area of
about 9 million acres and is
roughly the size of the two
small states of Maryland
and Rhode Island combined.
It is home to one of largest
remaining herds of bighorn
sheep and many other wild
plants and animals, such as
endangered sage grouse.
While Idaho’s section of
the Owyhee is protected as
a wilderness area, the same
cannot be said for Oregon’s
section. During her presen-
tation, Olin will talk about
the Owyhee’s geogarphy,
natural history and environ-
ment as well as legislation
and other efforts underway
to protect the area and desig-
nate it as a wilderness area.
Olin has been kayaking
with her husband Mike
Quigley for 27 years, using
rivers as their highways into
the wild. Quiqley has been
familiar with the Owyhee
since the mid 1970s and
introduced Olin to the can-
yonlands in 1993. Together,
they have spent the last 23
years exploring the canyons,
kayaking the river and hiking
the side canyons from river
to rim countless times. They
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Husband and wife Mike Quigley and Bonnie Olin have spent
the last 23 years exploring the canyons.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Owyhee River cuts through the canyondlands.
know, from irst-hand experi-
ence, that there are many
reasons to protect this region.
“The canyon geology
offers some of the most
stunning visual examples
of rhyolite formations on
our planet,” Olin said. “It is
unlike Bryce, Zion, Canyon-
lands or the Grand Canyon.
We have a golden opportu-
nity to protect a landscape
like no other in the lower 48
states that could easily qual-
ify for National Park status.
It is public land. It belongs
to all of us. And yet, the
Oregon section of the region
remains unprotected.”
Olin began her advoca-
cy for the protection of the
Owyhee with the publication
of her book, “The Owyhee
River Journals.” She self
published the book because
larger publishing irms
felt the Owyhee was too
unknown to have much of a
market. However, two edi-
tors encouraged her to pur-
sue the project on her own.
Featuring the photography
of her husband, the book is
considered a writing of re-
cord and came to fruition, in
part, because Olin couldn’t
ind a book on the Owyhee
that she was looking for —
one bursting with full-color
photos showing all the stems
of the river canyon including
the most remote regions.
“I wanted to share the
Owyhee that I knew, irst
with family and friends, but
eventually with everyone,
to increase awareness of the
area, in the hope that once
people saw the unique beau-
ty of these canyonlands, they
might ind it a special place
worthy of preservation,” she
said.
To reach her audience,
she developed a program
which includes a talk, a
slideshow and a movie,
that together, will take the
audience on a vicarious jour-
ney deep into the Owyhee
Canyonlands, from Nevada,
through Idaho and Oregon.
“For seeing it, I believe, is
the next best thing to being
there. And it is crucial to see
it, to have an understanding
of its importance,” she said.
The book includes an
abundance of photographs
that feature the entire river
system and reveal the beauty
of the inner canyon corri-
dor. The movie titled “Deep
Creek & the Owyhee River”
is a story of an expedition
into the Owyhee canyon by
inlatable kayaks in 2006
that begins on the Deep
Creek tributary of the East
Fork of the Owyhee River
in Idaho, continues into the
East Fork and ends at Three
Forks in Oregon. It is a
view of the upper regions of
the Owyhee River that few
people see.
A petition supporting pro-
tections for the Owyhee by
the Oregon Natural Desert
Association and information
on a conservation proposal
will be available at the event.
Olin was born and raised
in Springield and has ties to
the communities of Astoria
and Chinook. Her grandfa-
ther, John Olin, was known
as the “logger organist of
Astoria.” He had six children
with his second wife Ellen
Catrina Lindstrom. Their
youngest son and Bonnie
Olin’s father, Eldon R. Olin,
went on to become a timber
cruiser and artist. Eldon de-
picted the lives of the people
in the timber industry in his
drawings and Oregon land-
scapes in oil on canvas. His
wife, Bernice, started a busi-
ness selling reproductions of
his work in the 1970s and is
still in business.
Attend forest ecology
talk at Blue Scorcher
ASTORIA — The North
Coast Sate Forest Coalition
will host a forest ecology
and photography presen-
tation at 6:30 p.m. Friday,
Oct. 28 at Blue Scorcher
Bakery & Cafe, located at
1493 Duane St.
The evening will offer
an introduction into the
fascinating world of forest
ecology as well as focus
on the numerous ways that
forest management impacts
people’s lives.
Trygve Steen, a pro-
fessor of forest ecology,
environmental sustainabili-
ty and photography at Port-
land State University, will
give the presentation. Steen
will include examples
of his photography that
examine Pacific Northwest
forests and will discuss the
impacts of Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry’s manage-
ment.
Steen has joined several
North Coast State Forest
Coalition outings. He has
recently been involved in
documenting and chal-
lenging the Homesteader
Timber Sale in the Clatsop
State Forest, maintaining
that the area (about 250
acres southeast of Jewell
School) included old-
growth trees.
s
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n
e
v
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OCT. 27 * 8 pm
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