Oregon and Umatilla tribal leaders are embarking on a partnership that could restore habitat for elk and salmon in the Blue Mountains in a proposed wildlife area that would open up thousands of acres to hunting, fishing and recreation to the public.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have secured $22 million in federal funds to purchase 11,438 acres of private land in Union County to turn into a state-owned wildlife area. The purchase is still underway as officials await an appraisal.

State and tribal leaders see this land purchase as an opportunity to co-manage a large swath of forests and meadows for uses that often have conflicting priorities — namely, logging and environmental conservation.

“I can’t stress enough what good can come from us all working together and rejecting this notion that things have to be at odds, whether it’s private ownership versus public ownership, working landscapes versus preservation of landscapes,” said Anton Chiono, Habitat Conservation Project leader for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. “We can work together to thoughtfully manage a landscape for its working land qualities and also protect its natural resource values, and its fish and wildlife habitat.”

The land had been owned by timber businessman and philanthropist Harry Merlo. The Harry A. Merlo Foundation took over ownership after he died in 2016.

Merlo often hosted student tours of this property, showing university and high school students how to manage a landscape for fish and wildlife habitat alongside logging and cattle grazing.

The Merlo Foundation initially reached out to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, a pro-hunting conservation organization, about selling the land. The Elk Foundation helped facilitate the state’s land purchase.

“Harry had a vision that really incorporated working lands with fish and wildlife values, and he did an absolutely incredible job of managing that landscape for those values,” said Jon Paustian, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife habitat biologist based in La Grande.

Once the land purchase is finalized, the state will sign an agreement with the Umatilla tribes outlining how they will co-manage the property, which they plan to call Qapqápa Wildlife Area (pronounced cop-COP-a).

“There are beautiful alpine meadows on the property that were a place that the tribes, the Cayuse tribes in particular, would take their horses to give birth,” Chiono said. “The Cayuse name for those meadows actually translates to ‘the foaling place.’”

This land includes an entrance to the confluence of the Grand Ronde River and Beaver Creek, a traditional fishing spot known as Titlúupe Qapqápa.

In addition to granting tribes access to these culturally significant areas, Chiono and Paustian said they hope to improve the landscape for tribal first foods.

Those are foods that have historically sustained tribes. The Umatilla tribes have defined five categories of first foods that are important to them: water, salmon, deer and elk, roots, and berries.

Chiono and Paustian already have some ideas for restoring the land for water, fish and elk. The property includes nearly 6 miles along the Grand Ronde River, 6 miles along Beaver Creek, and more than 30 miles of perennial streams and tributaries to Beaver Creek. These chilly waters are important spawning habitat for spring Chinook salmon, summer steelhead and bull trout.

“So there’s tremendous opportunity here to do stream restoration work that’s really going to improve the floodplain,” Paustian said.

This area is also a migration corridor for elk during their winter foraging season. Paustian hopes to encourage elk to stay on these public lands, so they don’t encroach on privately owned cattle grazing and farmlands. Wildlife biologists might thin a dense cluster of trees to allow more grasses and shrubs to grow and entice elk, for instance.

“If we can do the habitat improvements from a big game standpoint, that makes sure that forage base is there when they get there, we’re able to intercept and hold there for a time,” Pausitan said.

The land purchase is being funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a national pot of money dedicated to purchasing wilderness areas. That fund has been in flux during President Donald Trump’s second administration. Earlier this year, the administration tried to divert nearly half of the fund’s money to put toward maintenance of existing national parks and federal lands.

“This is a great example of the benefits that we all citizens of this country get from that fund, but it’s very much at risk,” Chiono said.

Oregon is still early in the process of purchasing this land. Depending on how the appraisal goes, Chiono hopes the state can finalize the deal sometime next year.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/09/oregon-umatilla-union-qapqapa-tribal-leaders-union-county-wildlife-area-restoration/