Since being founded in 1987, ONDA has earned many successes including the protection of Steens Mountain as the nation’s first “cow-free” Wilderness in 2000, and the removal of livestock grazing from both the Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in 1992, and the Wild and Scenic Owyhee River in 1998.

Recent Accomplishments

ONDA’s Oregon Desert Outreach and Restoration Project engages volunteers to participate in hands-on fieldwork to restore desert habitat throughout Oregon’s desert wildlands.

Our 2008 field season was a huge success. Jefferson Jacobs, ONDA’s outreach and restoration coordinator worked, with the BLM, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation to lead eleven trips. In total, 215 individuals volunteered for our work trips (21 of whom were first-time volunteers). We removed more than 13 miles of barbed wire fence, planted 4,400 trees and monitored fifteen sage grouse lek at Hart Mountain.

WILDERNESS PROGRAM

ONDA’s wilderness program seeks permanent protection of special areas throughout Oregon’s desert wildlands. This year our long-standing efforts to secure wilderness designation for Badlands and Spring Basin paid off on June 5^th when Senator Wyden introduced the Badlands Wilderness Act of 2008 and the Spring Basin Wilderness Act of 2008.  Both bills were passed into law on March 30th, 2009 when President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009. 

ONDA was also instrumental in the creation of Steens Mountain Wilderness in 2000, and the elimination of the adverse ecological impacts of domestic livestock grazing from the Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, the Wild and Scenic Owyhee River, and the Donner and Blitzen River.

JOHN DAY WILD SALMON PROGRAM
ONDA’s John Day Wild Salmon Program seeks to restore native fish populations and improve overall watershed health by removing livestock grazing (through buy-outs of federal grazing permits) from critical areas within the watershed. In order to retire a federal grazing permit, it must be authorized either by federal legislation or administratively through the agency planning process.

With that in mind, ONDA remains actively involved in BLM’s planning process for the John Day Basin, as well as the forest planning process for all of NE Oregon. In both cases, our goal is to secure language that provides for retirement of ecologically unique grazing allotments.

This past year, ONDA staff also worked within the social network of the ranching community to further our goal of retiring federal grazing allotments on public lands.

LEGAL DEFENSE PROJECT
In July, ONDA won a landmark decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which determined that the Bureau of Land Management must rewrite its land use plan governing 4.6 million acres in and around the Owyhee Canyonlands. The Court agreed with ONDA that BLM wrongly refused to evaluate wilderness values in this remarkable landscape. This decision not only protects the Owyhee, but also sets important legal precedent that will benefit millions of acres of public land throughout Oregon’s high desert and the West. It ensures that BLM must study impacts to wilderness values on our public lands, including impacts from livestock grazing and off-road vehicle use.

In April, the Department of the Interior's Board of Land Appeals ("IBLA") granted ONDA's stay request, partially enjoining BLM's Travel Management Plan for Steens Mountain. The IBLA agreed with ONDA that BLM's decision to allow motorized vehicles on so-called "Obscure Routes" on Steens Mountain is likely illegal and would cause irreparable harm to the environment. BLM's decision would have allowed vehicles to travel on "routes" that the agency itself couldn't even identify on the ground. The stay order helps ensure against the threat of cross-country travel in Wilderness Study Areas.