09/15/05 Save a buckaroo

In a land down under, where the boundaries of Nevada, Oregon and Idaho are blurred, the vast Owyhee Desert remains a place time has forgotten, until that is the SUV's arrived, affording environmentalists and investors the courage to venture into the wild arid west. Remarkably, the Owyhee has been one of the few regions where the where ranches like the IL founded at the turn of the century, still sport the same brands, where cowboys are called buckaroos and wear hats that don't look anything like Ty Murray's. Where saddle horns are wrapped in hide, not rubber, and chinks, bits and spurs are remnants of a bygone era. Some of the last great ranches like the IL, who until last year still used a branding wagon and cow camps to migrate with their cattle herds over a vast million acres, have been sold to mining conglomerates and dissolved. Other ranches are struggle having lost valuable leases because the Oywhee is in the radar of environmentalists. It is interesting how our same society that wouldn't venture to displace the Amish or Mennonites doesn't give a thought to putting our Western heritage on the chopping block, Salmon get enough attention, Heck I think it is time to save a buckaroo. I'm Susan Allen.