Wallowa River

Oregon

Designated Reach: July 23, 1996. The segment of the Wallowa River from the confluence of the Wallowa and Minam Rivers in the hamlet of Minam downstream to the confluence of the Wallowa and the Grande Ronde Rivers.

Classification/Mileage: Recreational — 10.0 miles; Total — 10.0 miles.

From the confluence of the Minam and Wallowa Rivers at Minam, Oregon, downstream to its confluence with the Grande Ronde, this river is the gateway to the Wild and Scenic Grande Ronde River. The Wallowa offers incredible fishing, hunting, wildlife viewing and floatboating, as well as a state park for camping. The primary launch site for the Wallowa and Grande Ronde corridors, as well as the Bureau of Land Management public contact station, are located on state lands at Minam.

The River

On July 25, 1996, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt added the Wallowa River in northeastern Oregon to the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System. The Wallowa became the 160th—and Oregon's 46th—river to be designated as wild and scenic. The Wallowa joined Joseph Creek and the Minam, Lostine, Wenaha and the Grande Ronde Rivers as designated wild and scenic rivers within the Grande Ronde Basin. Only the Klamath and Smith River Systems in California, and the Deschutes in Oregon, are comparable in protection of a complete river system.

On December 29 of 1994, former Governor Barbara Roberts asked Secretary Babbitt to add the river to the National System through Section 2(a)(ii) of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Under this clause, the Secretary can designate a river wild and scenic at the request of a governor, provided the river already has state protection, has resources important to the nation, and can be managed by the state to protect those resources. The application then passed to the National Park Service for analysis. The National Park Service, following an earlier study by the U.S. Forest Service, recommended designation, and the Wallowa was added to the Wild & Scenic Rivers System.

Under Section 2(a)(ii) designation, the Wallowa River remains in local and state management. This provision of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act specifically precludes federal acquisition or management, except for those lands already in the public domain. (However, land exchanges by federal agencies are allowed under Section 2(a)(ii), and purchases under other land management plans can also occur.) In the case of the Wallowa, the Bureau of Land Management administers a significant portion of the river corridor.

Designation preserves the outstanding fish, wildlife, scenic and recreational resources of the Wallowa. The river corridor provides habitat for threatened and endangered species such as bald eagles and peregrine falcons, and wintering range for elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer. It also provides habitat for spring/summer chinook salmon, summer steelhead, bull trout, as well as historic habitat for sockeye, coho and fall chinook salmon. The Wallowa offers incredible fishing, hunting, wildlife viewing, floatboating, an extended whitewater boating season, and a state park for camping. The primary launch site for the Wallowa and Grande Ronde corridors, as well as the Bureau of Land Management public contact station, are located on state lands at Minam. Its outstanding scenery has been given the Bureau of Land Management's highest scenic classification.