Amanda Hoffman is the current manager of the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA. She took over this role in March of 2016, having previously served as the acting associate monument manager at Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We talked with Amanda about the challenges that she’s faced since becoming the manager of this NCA, and how she’s taken lessons from the unique history of the area.

Dr. Julie Heath is a professor in the department of Biological Sciences and the Raptor Research Center at Boise State University. Her research lab is focused on addressing questions about how birds respond to large scale environmental change. She has conducted numerous research projects within the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA, working with a number of other researchers and graduate students. This research has documented how raptors are responding to some of the changes occurring within the NCA and the surrounding area.

Kent Carnie is a lifelong falconer, longtime board member of the Peregrine Fund, and the founder of the Archives of Falconry. His close friendship with Morley Nelson lasted for many decades, and Carnie played a central role in the decision to relocate the Peregrine Fund’s headquarters to its current home in Boise, ID. We discussed with Mr. Carnie the history of American falconry as well as the influence that Morley Nelson had on the sport. Carnie also explains the role that Morley played in the recovery of the peregrine falcon, and the influence that the Peregrine Fund exerted to support the establishment of the Snake River Birds of Prey NCA.

Roger Rosentreter is a retired BLM botanist – he spent 35 years working as the Idaho BLM state botanist. During that time Roger worked throughout Idaho and the Intermountain West, but always maintained a strong connection with the high desert ecosystems of the sagebrush steppe, and has spent quite a bit of time working in the NCA. He has amassed a wealth of knowledge about the introduction of invasive species such as cheatgrass, and has conducted numerous research projects analyzing the effects of these introductions on native species. He has authored close to 100 scientific publications over the course of his career.

John Freemuth is a professor of public policy at Boise State University, but he also serves as the Cencil Andrus endowed chair of Environment and Public Lands for the Andrus Center for Public Policy. During the Clinton administration, Freemuth served as the chair of the science advisory board for the BLM, so he has a vast depth of knowledge on how science can and should affect public policy. We talked with John Freemuth about the legacy of Cecil Andrus and how science should continue to affect policy in the Snake River Birds of Prey NCA.

Dean Hagerman is a historian, graduate student, and former National Guardsman who worked at the Orchard Combat Training Center within the Snake River Birds of Prey NCA. As someone with both direct experience working for the National Guard at their training area inside the NCA, and a graduate student studying the history of this very area, Dean is uniquely positioned to share the history behind this National Guard training center. And this history is quite unique – as Dean points out, there are no other examples on the planet of an active military training area operating from within an area protected for environmental reasons.

John Sullivan was the first manager of the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, serving in this role for over a decade. In our interview, Sullivan provides some fascinating insight into the issues that needed to be addressed during the early years of the NCA, including a contentious relationship with an Army National Guard training center.

Tracy Andrus is the middle daughter of former Idaho governor and secretary of the interior Cecil Andrus. Tracy has a wealth of amazing stories about growing up in the Andrus household and traveling to Washington, D.C. for her father’s term as the Interior Secretary. She has become an advocate for public lands in her own right in her role as the president of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State U, and her insight into the processes behind the establishment of the Snake River Birds of Prey NCA is invaluable.

All of our previous interviews released as a part of this series have been focused on the very recent history of the Snake River canyon region. This interview with Ted Howard, the tribal chairman of the Shoshone-Paiute tribe, takes us back to the earliest interactions that humanity had with this landscape, and also provides crucial insight into issues over land ownership in Southern Idaho and throughout the West.

Dr. Mark Plew is a professor of Anthropology at Boise State University. He has spent a significant portion of his career conducting research in the Snake River plain, and has spent more time investigating archaeological sites within the Morley Nelson Snake River birds of Prey NCA than any other archeologist in history. It this oral history interview Dr. Plew outlines a number of key insights into the ancient history of human occupation in the Snake River canyon, as well as discussing the politics surrounding archeological research in this area.

Former Deputy Attorney General for the state of Idaho Clive Strong discusses the Swan Falls controversy of the early 1980s. This landmark agreement has had far reaching implications for water rights and water law across the US, but it also had a local impact on the establishment of protection for the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA.

Norm Nelson is the oldest son of Morley Nelson, who is widely considered to be the most influential figure in the establishment of a National Conservation Area in the snake river canyon. What many people don’t realize however, is the substantial role that Morley’s family played in working to get protected status for this unique area. While Morley was working his full time job as the region’s snow survey supervisor – a job that he held from the late 1940s through the early 1970s – it was often his kids – Norm, Tim, Tyler and Suzie – who were out in the field working to spread awareness about birds of prey. Norm became interested in both raptors and filmmaking at an early age – he was training eagles and shooting film footage for big time film productions by the time he was in high school. While Morley was pulling strings behind the scenes to secure funding for documentaries about birds of prey in the Snake River canyon, it was often Norm and his younger brother Tyler who were responsible for the creative process behind these influential films. We feel honored to have had the opportunity to interview Norm for this oral history series, and we hope that you enjoy his stories about a lifetime of work in the Snake River canyon as much as we did!

Larry LaRocco served as a congressman from Idaho’s 1st congressional district in the US House of Representatives from 1991 through 1995. When he was elected, LaRocco knew very little about the Snake River canyon region, but he had cut his teeth as a politician working on wilderness legislation in central Idaho as a field coordinator for Senator Frank Church. LaRocco entered congress at a moment when Morley Nelson, Cecil Andrus and others were starting to become concerned about the need to permanently protect the Snake River canyon. The Snake River Birds of Prey Natural Area had been protected through a 20 year administrative withdrawal in 1980, so by 1991 there were less than 10 years left to make that protection permanent. Representative LaRocco took this issue on, and was able to use his experience in public lands issues to sponsor legislation establishing permanent protection for the Snake River canyon region. This legislation was Larry LaRocco’s greatest political victory - without Representative LaRocco, the area might have lost it’s protected status.

Dean Bibles played a key role in one of the most important actions connected to the establishment of the Snake River Birds of Prey NCA - the 1980 withdrawal by then Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus, which created the current boundaries for this protected area. It was actually Dean's idea to increase the boundary of what was then called the Snake River Birds of Prey Natural Area, via an administrative withdrawal, which he suggested to Cecil Andrus on a float trip down the Snake River canyon. Dean went on to serve in a variety of public office roles throughout his long career, and he maintains that the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA is the only protected area in the world whose boundaries were established based upon scientific research into the habitat requirements of the animals that live there.

Karen Steenhof has been working in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCa for over 40 years as a wildlife and research biologist. The research that she conducted in the 1970s, 80s and 90s played a key role in the establishment of protection for the area. She has become one of the leading advocates for research based management of the NCA – advocating for continued raptor monitoring in the Snake River canyon, and playing an important advocacy role in the controversial decision to route a new powerline through the canyon. It was an honor to speak with Karen about her involvement in the history of the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA, and we thank her for sharing her story with us.

In our fifth episode of this oral history series we are featuring our interview with Andy Ogden, a man who knows more about the Snake River Canyon than most do about their backyard. Andy was introduced to birds of prey by Morley Nelson when he was just a teenager, and Nelson quickly became a role model for Andy. When Andy was in high school Morley convinced him to take on one of the first raptor research and monitoring projects in the Snake River Canyon. Andy become fascinated by the Snake River Canyon, and as a graduate student conducted the first population assessment for Prairie Falcon populations in the region, solidifying is place in the history of this unique National Conservation Area.

This, our fourth episode of this oral history series, will feature an interview with Cecil Andrus. Andrus is probably Idaho’s best known politician - he ran for Governor of Idaho in 1970 as a Democrat and an environmentalist - and he won. Andrus also served as the Secretary of the Interior under president Jimmy Carter, where he was able to have his most dramatic influence over the establishment of a protected area in the Snake River canyon. Andrus passed away in 2017, but we’re able to hear his perspective on the Snake River Birds of Prey NCA because of an interview conducted by author Steve Stuebner in the year 2000. Stuebner conducted numerous interviews relevant to the establishment of protection for the Snake River canyon region when he was researching for his biography of Morley Nelson, “Cool North Wind”. The interviews were recorded to micro cassettes, and were donated to the Archives of Falconry once Stuebner completed his book.

Michael Kochert has been researching raptor species for over 40 years and has served in multiple capacities for the Raptor Research Foundation. He has been interested in wildlife biology since he was a child, and admits he wasn’t initially interested in birds of prey. But, it didn’t take long after his first impression in the Snake River Canyon that he would proudly called himself a “desert rat”. Michael was instrumental in researching and understanding the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. His work was pivotal to NCA borders established by the BLM. He met Morley Nelson as a young researcher, and would end up spending the next 30 years learning from and spending time with the Snake River Canyon legend.

Steve Stuebner is the author of “Cool North Wind”, a biography of Morley Nelson. Steve spent years researching Morley’s life for this book, conducting numerous interviews and uncovering fascinating details about the creation of the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA.

Our first interview is with the man who deserves the most credit for the creation of a national conservation area in the snake river canyon - Morley Nelson. Morley passed away in 2005 at the age of 88, but we uncovered this archival interview conducted in 1990 by the founder of the Archives of Falconry, Kent Carnie. The original interview was close to six hours long - we’ve edited it down to include the segments that we felt were relevant to the history of the Snake River canyon.