In 2000, in response to prodding from then-Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt, and with support of conservationists and local landowners, Oregon’s Congressional delegation created an Act to permanently protect Steens Mountain.  On October 30, 2000, President Clinton signed HR4828, the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act of 2000, also known as the “Steens Act,” creating the nation’s first congressionally designated “cow-free” Wilderness area.

As the name suggests, the Steens legislation did more than designate the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.  The Steens Act created a 425,550 acre Cooperative Management and Protection Area, which is managed to protect ecological, scenic, and recreational resources on Steens Mountain and to facilitate cooperative management efforts between landowners, the public, and state and federal agencies.  The Act designated 29 miles of streams as Wild and Scenic Rivers and the Redband Trout Reserve, which created protection for a unique population of redband trout in the Donner und Blitzen River.  The Steens Act also withdrew 1.1 million acres from mining and geothermal development, and prohibited the use of off-road vehicles and construction of new roads within the Cooperative Management and Protection Area.