Steens Mountain Wilderness. Photo: Greg Burke

In December, the Secretary of the Interior approved a plan allowing the developer to build up to 70 wind turbines and a high-capacity transmission line on the remote and iconic mountain, located in southeast Oregon. Electricity generated by the wind project will be sent to southern California as part of an agreement with Southern California Edison; approximately half of the project cost will be subsidized by taxpayers according to project financing documents. Critics argue that Oregonians should not be asked to sacrifice Steens Mountain to a Washington-based, New York-financed company in order to generate electricity for California.

Transmission lines for the project would cut across an area protected by Congress in 2000 and the project would fragment one of the largest undeveloped landscapes left in the Great Basin. Wind turbines, transmission lines, access roads and associated development pose threats to migratory routes and breeding areas for sensitive species such as bighorn sheep, Golden eagles, and Greater sage-grouse, a bird recently recognized by the Department of the Interior’s own Fish and Wildlife Service as being in danger of extinction, due primarily to fragmentation of its sagebrush habitat.

“Of all the places in Oregon’s high desert, this is perhaps the worst place for wind development,” said Brent Fenty, Executive Director of ONDA. “Steens Mountain is to Oregon’s deserts what Crater Lake is to our forests; a truly special place we should protect for future generations.”

In 2000, Congress passed a law requiring that the Secretary of the Interior protect the “long-term ecological integrity” and “character” of a half-million acre areas of public land on Steens Mountain. That area includes 170,000 acres Congress protected as Wilderness. Wind turbines reaching higher than 400 feet will be visible from popular vistas including the mountain’s popular summit overlook.

The proposed 230-kilovolt transmission line is several times the size necessary for the current proposal, thereby enabling extensive future development on the mountain.

"We support responsible renewable energy development, but this is the antithesis" said Bob Sallinger, Conservation Director for Portland Audubon. "There is nothing green about this project. It puts imperiled wildlife populations at risk and opens one of our great wild landscapes to industrial development."

ONDA and Audubon are represented by the public interest law firm, Advocates for the West.

Click here to see complaint.

CONTACT:
Brent Fenty, Executive Director, Oregon Natural Desert Association, work 541-330-2638, cell 541-678-1974
Bob Sallinger, Conservation Director, Audubon Society of Portland, work 503-292-9501 x110, cell 503-380-9728

Journey, the world’s most famous wolf, has covered well over 1,000 miles in his trek from northeast Oregon, across the Cascades, and down into northern California in search of a mate. What has he seen along the way? A new map-based analysis released today by a coalition of conservation groups shows that Journey (also know as OR-7) has migrated through a variety of terrain, but often sticks to undeveloped wilderness areas. He is also spending the majority of his time on public lands.

“Who knew that wolves carried guide books to wilderness areas?” mused Erik Fernandez, Wilderness Coordinator with Oregon Wild. “In all seriousness, it’s thrilling to see that the proposed Crater Lake wilderness and other important wildlife corridors identified by scientists are being used on this amazing journey.”

Journey’s trek started when he dispersed from the Imnaha Wolf Pack in northeast Oregon. This original home territory represents one of the wildest landscapes in Oregon, the Hells Canyon and Wallowa Mountains area. Click here for a map of Journey's adventure.

From there OR-7 ventured through roadless and wilderness areas in the Malheur region before passing through undeveloped stretches of Oregon’s high desert. He then settled temporarily in the south Cascades in the proposed Crater Lake wilderness area. Once the snow began to fall he headed south into California where he padded through Lava Beds National Monument and other wildlands and roadless areas just east of Mount Shasta. Journey then headed south toward the southern terminus of the Cascades near Lassen Volcanic National Park. Since entering California he has traveled through, or very close to, eleven existing or proposed wilderness areas.

Wilderness highlights from Journey’s trek:

• Eagle Cap Wilderness: Journey spent his earliest days in this 359,000-acre natural treasure that is Oregon’s largest designated wilderness.
• Proposed Hidden Springs Wilderness: Journey toured the Hidden Springs Proposed wilderness near Hampton Butte and the Crooked River.
• Proposed Crater Lake Wilderness: Journey spent a fair amount of time near Crater Lake, and utilized the wildlife corridors identified by scientists leading into and out of the park on his trip. The backcountry of the park and undeveloped areas adjacent to the park are proposed for wilderness designation.
• Proposed Captain Jack Wilderness: Journey passed through this 62,000-acre proposed wilderness in Lava Beds National Monument and the Modoc National Forest that is named in honor of a leader of the Modoc Tribe.
• Proposed Ahjumawi Wilderness: Journey passed through this 58,000-acre proposed wilderness that is jointly managed by the Lassen National Forest and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). It is dominated by a series of dramatic lava flows.
• Proposed McDonald Peak Wilderness: Journey spent several days on the flanks of McDonald Peak in Lassen County, a Great Basin wild area managed by the BLM.

Oregon Natural Desert Association’s Matt Little noted that "Journey's path is a reminder that wolves and people alike need the wide open spaces that wilderness provides.  Both wildlife and future generations are relying on us to ensure that these wild and awe-inspiring places are there for decades to come."

With the theme of “Bend’s external environment inspires our internal environment (mental, physical, emotional & spiritual)”, the ABC Commission will partner with The Environmental Center and its members, which includes: 1000 Friends of Oregon, Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, Trout Unlimited—Deschutes Chapter, Commute Options for Central Oregon, Deschutes Land Trust, East Cascade Audubon Society, Oregon Natural Desert Association, Oregon Wild, Sierra Club—Juniper Group, and The Trust for Public Land.

Juried artists will be paired with a partner organization to express the theme through the inspiration of the organization’s work. Mike Riley, executive director of The Environmental Center said, “We are very excited
to participate in this project. It’s a unique opportunity for The Environmental Center and our member groups to tell our stories and reach a new audience.”

For more information on City Walls at City Hall
and/or the ABC Commission, please go to http://www.bendoregon.gov/citywalls.

Unfortunately, Golden eagles and other birds die every year due to collisions with wind turbines. We believe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in implementing the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, needs to do something to address these impacts. Until this permit, eagle collisions were not addressed adequately at wind farms. This first-ever permit is intended be a mechanism in which the agency can monitor and protect populations.

The permit will have conditions, monitoring, and mitigation requirements attached to it. Therefore, the hope is that it will make the developer accountable for their impacts on wildlife. Overall, this is a more responsible approach to siting wind projects than what has been previously acceptable. We hope these permits will become a required part of wind project applications and we will be commenting on the agency’s methodology and other elements of the draft environmental assessment.
The Environmental Assessment is located HERE and how to comment by Feb.2 is HERE.

Why is ONDA not opposing the West Butte Project?

Based on our analysis of wildlife surveys and due to features of the project, including its close proximity to transmission, we feel the West Butte project will have fewer impacts compared to other proposed sites. While we are still concerned about all impacts associated with wind project development, we feel the developer, Crook County, the Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. FWS are working toward appropriate processes to evaluate and monitor impacts and develop micro-siting and mitigation that will minimize overall impacts.

ONDA supports responsible renewable energy that has low impacts on our environment. We feel renewable energy is needed to lessen our reliance on fossil fuels, mitigate our growing carbon footprint in the face of climate change, and create local green jobs.

(Feb 17 Update - we have reviewed the draft Environmental Assessment and determined that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not collect enough data or perform the analysis necessary for this permit, nor did it provide adequate monitoring and mitigation for the project.  In our comments, we have asked the agency to collect more information and correct these errors before issuing a permit)

For questions contact the ONDA office, 541-330-2638, Liz Nysson, liznysson@onda.org or Matt Little, matt@onda.org

Click on image for slideshow

To help celebrate the Wild Desert Calendar Bend Brewing Company will exhibit a selection of calendar images from photographers Sean Bagshaw, Brian Ouimette, Tyson Fisher, and Jim Davis. Calendars and canvas prints will be available for purchase, with proceeds going to support the Oregon Natural Desert Association. Please join ONDA staff, photographers and friends to celebrate Oregon’s native deserts:

January 6th, First Friday, 5-8pm
Bend Brewing Company
1019 Northwest Brooks Street
Bend

Exhibit shown Jan. 6th-31st.

Read the article in the Oregonian

ON a chilly afternoon in late June, we stood contemplating our options in an icy Oregon rain that pricked our skin like needles. The canyon’s 300-foot-high walls of chocolate rhyolite had corralled the river into a pool too deep to wade through, too cold to swim in. Turning back would mean a grueling two-day retreat upstream. If we pushed ahead we could be out in a day. The decision was painful but clear: time to strip and swim.

Brent Fenty, the 37-year-old executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA), a conservation group, ripped off his shirt and eased waist-deep into the water. Goosebumps rippled down his arms. His backpack bobbed before him. “I’m not getting any braver,” he said. Then he went for it, swimming for all he was worth toward a gravel bank 100 feet away. One by one, the five of us made it across.

It was Day 3 of a four-day, nearly 50-mile exploratory hike through Louse Canyon in the Upper West Little Owyhee Wilderness Study Area of southeastern Oregon, and there was no doubt we were getting spanked. But unexpected swims like this came as no surprise because no one really knew what to expect.

About 350 air miles southeast of Portland, the West Little Owyhee River, a rarely visited tributary of the better-known Owyhee River, has cut a squiggle of a gorge through sandy expanses of sage and rye. The canyon is surely among the most inaccessible places in the West. At its loneliest, the nearest human living under a proper roof is about 24 hours away by four-wheel drive, then horseback and foot. This cool crack in what is known as I.O.N. country, where Idaho, Oregon and Nevada collide, is so deep in the back of beyond that it sits in a different time zone from the rest of the Pacific Northwest. Our route would take us along the West Little Owyhee, from a rough dirt road at Anderson Crossing in the south to the river’s confluence with the main stem of the Owyhee in the north.

Most people think of Oregon as craggy coasts and big trees, but nearly half of the nation’s 10th largest state is a barren sagebrush sea so vast that distant clouds seem to disappear below the earth’s curve. ONDA, which works to protect some six million acres of the high desert east of the Cascades, which run from California to Washington, has proposed a 700-mile-long hiking trail from Bend up to the Idaho state line that would wander along more than a dozen proposed wilderness areas that highlight the desert’s often overlooked magnificence. The plan is to have the route entirely surveyed next year, with maps and signage ready by spring 2014. Much of the trail — the more accessible parts — will follow existing game trails, hiking paths and old dirt roads used occasionally by ranchers. ONDA has already mapped close to 150 miles, using a seed grant from the Portland-based Lazar Foundation, ONDA membership fees and donations from local businesses to arm volunteers with GPS units and geo-referencing cameras to document where a hiker could find water, skirt a butte or make camp.

The section through Louse Canyon is the most rugged, complicated and largely unknown part of the proposal, so Brent assembled a small team of ONDA workers to survey it themselves. My friend Chris Solomon, a regular contributor to the Travel section, and I tagged along for fun.

While the Upper West Little Owyhee River corridor itself is federally protected as a Wild and Scenic River, the land surrounding it is not. On either side of the rim you can find the lower 48’s largest swath of roadless turf that has no permanent federal protection — about two million acres of nothing but nothing. The hope is that with accurate maps, signs and route descriptions people will go and stiffer protection will follow.

The five of us were all avid backpackers with considerable experience in trail-less country, and we set off confidently into the canyon under crisp blue skies. A wild horse crested a ridge as we made our way through shin-deep water and along gravel bars lined with sweet peas and wild roses. I stopped to photograph pinnacles protruding like a pipe organ into the sky and noticed tiny fish flickering around my ankles. Brent caught one, a northern pikeminnow, with his hands. Above us soared hoodoos, those Wile E. Coyote rocks perched atop thin pillars. There were graceful arches and even hoodoos with arches. It was exceedingly gorgeous, a Utah dipped in fudge.

“The dream is alive!” shouted Chris Hansen, ONDA’s 27-year-old Owyhee regional representative.

While such remote grandeur fueled our sense of discovery, this area of the Owyhee Plateau was actually first explored centuries ago by the Tagu, a band of Northern Paiute Indians who lived off wild onions, tubers and pronghorns that today still bound across the uplands. In 1819 Donald Mackenzie, a Canadian fur trapper, named the main river stem the Owyhee after Hawaiian trappers he sent down it never returned. (“Owyhee,” pronounced “oh-WHY-hee,” comes from the word “Hawaii”). In 1863, miners struck gold north of here, but with limited water and poor soil, no towns this far south took root.

What has taken root, however, are thick stands of willows, and bashing through them is dreadful business. Within an hour of starting our hike a rubbery limb whipped my face so hard it left a bloody welt. Jeremy Fox, ONDA’s 31-year-old trail-mapping coordinator, slipped and toppled into the river. I was about to step on a rock but panicked when a rattlesnake lurking below made the consequences of that action clear. “Just step back slowly,” Chris Hansen said, using a long piece of willow — his trusty “snake stick” — to scoot the snake along. Soon all of us had snake sticks, their ends sheered off by beavers.

On that first night, we made camp on a pleasant bend in the river with a white gravel beach framed by towering gray walls. I swam in the crisp black water, which felt refreshing in the heat, as cliff sparrows darted around me, mating in midflight. It was magical, but the reality of the day was depressing: four hours of thrashing and we’d only covered four miles. At this rate we’d never make it out before our supplies and wits ran out.

“We don’t want to get to a point of no return where we can’t get out in time,” Brent said, after a dinner of corn chowder and hard-boiled eggs. “Tomorrow’s a big day. If it’s not going well, we’ll have to get out.”

But things went impressively well. The GPS on Day 2 said we’d covered a whopping 19 miles in 10 hours of hiking — a pace twice as fast as the day before. We climbed along Winnebago-size boulders, spotted golden eagles and waded around muffin-top crags. The canyon had grown no easier, but we’d learned how to move through it with the craftiness of water, aiming for the inside bends where the water was shallower and looking for small clearings in the willows so that we could push through more easily. At trouble spots we fanned out like commandos to find ways through in seconds rather than minutes. It was multisport backpacking at its best.

All hell broke loose that night as a hailstorm strafed our camp with marble-size missiles. In an effort to go as light and fast as possible, no one had brought a proper tent. Instead we slept under tarps or in weatherproof bags, called bivy sacks, and the onslaught left us confined in synthetic coffins splattered in wet sand. In the morning even my energy bars were soggy in their unopened wrappers. A cold drizzle dragged temperatures down to the low 60s, with no sun to wring us out. Worse, we hiked only a few miles before we came to the pool we had to swim across to avoid a difficult retreat. The last thing I wanted to do was dive in, but Plan B — an arduous hike upstream — was worse. I shoveled in sugary pineapple chunks to stoke my metabolic fire. My heart exploded in my ribcage as I made the other side at last.

After a second, even colder pool, Brent and Chris Hansen were shivering uncontrollably, so we paused under a rocky overhang, did jumping jacks and boiled river water to drink. “This is the best-tasting hot water I’ve ever had,” Chris Solomon said. Only after we stopped shivering did we realize how truly beautiful a spot we were in. Tiny white wildflowers clung to cracks in the weeping walls. A red-tailed hawk circling overhead fired a shrill salvo that ricocheted off the marbled rock.

“If this had been a hot July day you’d be psyched,” Brent said. “Look at these pools! You’d want to play and swim.” He was right. The place was surreal, a narrow fissure so well hidden a wagon train could fall in before anyone noticed the ground was gone.

By noon the clouds had parted, the sun had come out, and our spirits soared along with our core temperatures. We logged nearly 14 miles that day, the canyon walls opening and closing around us like an accordion. That evening we stopped on a bank within striking distance of a truck we’d parked on the canyon rim nearly a week earlier.

The final 12 miles blew by that last day, which turned hot and sunny again. We stopped to slay redband trout with wet flies that we flung into emerald green pools, and ran our fingers over the velvety white petals of mariposa lilies. Chris Solomon found a sparkling quartz arrowhead and then yanked a sun-bleached skull of a bighorn sheep out from under a rock. He strapped it to his pack for the hike out, its thick horns protruding out the sides.

On our last evening we laid in the fescue and mint along the main stem of the Owyhee. We hadn’t seen a soul, and Brent conceded that it would be tough to send hikers the way we had just come. Instead, ONDA will look at the data we’ve gathered and recommend a route that drops into the canyon for its best sections — the trout-choked holes, the pinnacles — while skirting the worst ones by moving high along the rim.

But mapping out a viable route is really just a means to an end. “It’s hard to explain to people why the desert is worth protecting and what wilderness really means,” Brent said. “But you drop somebody back in here and it all becomes immediately clear.”

IF YOU GO

Hikers should be experienced, able to swim and completely self-sufficient. Dry bags and footwear are key. Traditional hiking boots will become waterlogged nightmares. A sturdy water shoe, like Keen’s aptly named McKenzie, for the McKenzie River (which took its name from the Canadian fur trapper, Donald Mackenzie, who named the Owyhee), is critical.

WHEN TO GO Late June to August.

GUIDES The Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) often organizes guided hikes through Oregon’s high desert, but none are as demanding as backpacking the length of Louse Canyon.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ONDA, as of now, is the best source for up-to-date information for hikers seeking to explore this region (541-330-2638; onda.org).

Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) reintroduced legislation today into the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests, which would protect close to 18,000 acres as wilderness along the John Day River in eastern Oregon’s rugged high desert.

Introduced as the Cathedral Rock and Horse Heaven Wilderness Act of 2011, the bill would consolidate fragmented Bureau of Land Management (BLM) parcels, which would result in two large protected tracts that provide critical habitat for wildlife such as steelhead, salmon, elk, mule deer, and a range of sensitive plant species.

Situated along the lower John Day River near Antelope, Ore., the areas include dramatic basalt cliffs, rolling hills of sagebrush and native grasses, and stunning views of the surroundings. The region offers unparalleled recreational opportunities including world-class boating, hiking, fishing and hunting.

The proposed legislation includes land exchanges among the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), USDA Forest Service (USFS), Young Life’s Washington Family Ranch, and three other private landowners.

Land consolidation would allow public access to more than 8,000 acres of public land that historically have been enclosed by private ownership and unavailable to the public. An additional 1,500 acres have been added to the Horse Heaven proposed wilderness area since the legislation
was originally introduced in 2010, while consolidating USFS and private lands near the Ochoco National Forest.

“The Washington Family Ranch and their neighbors will benefit from the clearly marked proposed boundaries,” said Richard Kaiser, director of real estate for Young Life, the Christian organization that owns and operates Washington Family Ranch. “In addition to this value to private landowners,” said Kaiser, “this legislation clearly increases public access to BLM lands and protection for fish and wildlife.”

In addition, more than four miles of the Wild and Scenic John Day River would be added to public ownership, thereby expanding public access for river users in this popular area.

In 1988, Congress protected the river corridor as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. This newest proposal will expand the existing protection to the rugged upland areas that hug the river corridor.

“This protection will ensure a legacy of conservation for steelhead and other native fish, while providing incredible new recreational opportunities for hikers, hunters, boaters and anglers,” said Aaron Killgore of the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA).

ONDA is requesting submissions of photos to be considered for our 2012 Wild Desert Calendar. The chosen photos will be put into our calendar, which we plan to release in August, 2011. Click HERE to see images from the 2011 Wild Desert Calendar.

High priority areas are:

1. Proposed Central Oregon Wilderness - Hampton Buttes/Gerry Mountain/South Fork Crooked River WSA

2. Proposed Whychus/Deschutes Wilderness -Alder Springs and Steelhead Falls WSA

3. Owyhee Canyonlands

4. Bully Creek/ Malheur River

5. Steens Wilderness, Alvord Desert, Sheepshead Mtns

6. John Day River and Cathedral Rock Proposed Wilderness

7. Sutton Mountain WSA, Pat’s Cabin WSA and Horse Heaven Proposed Wilderness

8. Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge and Beaty Butte. Long Lake, Hawksie Walksie RNA and other areas between Hart and Sheldon Refuges

Please submit NO MORE THAN TEN (10) of your highest quality photographs, using the following guidelines:

Transparencies: 35mm, 2 1⁄4, 6x7, 4x5 or 8x10

Digital images: Maximum quality JPEG files (2.5 MB/long edge 1024 pixels, 72 dpi) for initial submission, print quality 300 dpi TIFF files must be available if your image(s) are selected.

Please send horizontal, landscape images (which may include people as small elements) for the large (9.25x12.25) full-page sheets, and smaller scale vertical or horizontal (details of flowers, wildlife, etc.) for the inset images on the calendar grid.  Be sure that a description of each photograph is provided, either on the photograph itself, or on a separate sheet with corresponding numbers.

The calendar will be printed in CMYK, which has a smaller color gamut than the RGB palette. Therefore, please be conservative with saturation increases and do not sharpen files.

Please include a self-addressed envelope with your submission to ensure proper protection and return of your images.

Please submit images by no later than June 1st, 2011. Images can be submitted to:

ONDA

c/o Calendar Images

33 NW Irving Ave

Bend, OR 97701

OR Email katya@onda.org

For questions contact ONDA at (541) 330-2638 or katya@onda.org.

It's a surprising argument given how much Central Oregon relies on our surrounding natural beauty for everything from job creation in the outdoor recreation industry to the outstanding quality of life that attracts businesses and individuals to our region. A quick tour of Central Oregon gives us a good sense of why protected landscapes are far from burdensome.

This tour starts at an unlikely place — your kitchen sink. Much of Bend's drinking water benefits from natural forest filtration, starting in the Tumalo roadless area west of town in the Deschutes National Forest. Roadless areas are a special class of National Forest land, administratively protected from new road-building, commercial logging and other harmful development. These areas aren't congressionally designated Wilderness or Wild and Scenic Rivers, a fact that left them open to assault by the Bush administration.

Next door to Tumalo is the recreation paradise of the Three Sisters Wilderness. Congress protected the Three Sisters in 1964, and it's hard to imagine it as anything but a vast and beautiful wilderness oasis. Still, in 1974, the U.S. Pumice Co. pushed forward with an old mining claim just south of South Sister. The Forest Service was clear in its environmental assessment that digging for pumice and wilderness values didn't mix. Because of its wilderness status, President Ronald Reagan approved the funds to buy out the mining claim in the Three Sisters, preventing environmental degradation.

Forming high in the Cascades and eventually flowing through the lives of so many Oregonians is the Deschutes River. Once undermined by excessive water diversions and overgrazing, the Deschutes is now Oregon's premier fly-fishing destination. As adventurous rafters float by on the federally protected Wild and Scenic stretch of the lower Deschutes, grandparents teach their grandchildren how to cast a fly and pass down an Oregon birthright.

Let's finish our tour where the Bulletin started, at the Crooked River below Bowman Dam. This small section of the Crooked River designated as Wild and Scenic is visually stunning and provides an important sanctuary for redband trout, which anglers flock to the river to pursue.

It's hard to imagine Central Oregon without these special places. We owe thanks to the local residents and elected leaders who worked hard to protect these special places for future generations.

While it's not clear how Bowman Dam came to be included in the final boundary of the Wild and Scenic River designation on the Crooked River, what should be clear is the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act itself is not to blame, nor are the fish, wildlife, recreation and scenic values it protects.

Our state should be proud that we have safeguarded more rivers than any other in the nation. Conversely, we should be concerned with how little wilderness we have protected compared to our neighbors. Oregon has managed to safeguard only 4 percent of the state's territory as wilderness. Compare that to 15 percent in California, 11 percent in Washington and 8 percent in Idaho. Correcting this deficit provides outdoor recreation jobs and clean water, and enhances Central Oregon's quality of life.

Luckily, Oregonians are joining together to support new Wilderness and Wild and Scenic River proposals across the state. In Central and Eastern Oregon, two years of collaboration between conservationists, hunters and local landowners has led to groundbreaking agreements to protect Cathedral Rock and Horse Heaven — wilderness gems along the John Day River. Closer to Bend, neighbors of the proposed Whychus-Deschutes Wilderness have recently spoken out, urging additional protections for this stunningly scenic area.

Further south, anchored by Oregon's only National Park, is the Crater Lake Wilderness proposal. At over 500,000 acres, this proposed wilderness would act on a 30-year-old recommendation from the National Park Service to safeguard the vast backcountry of the park, the forested slopes of Mount Bailey and the headwaters of the Rogue River — areas recently put at risk by reckless logging proposals.

Wilderness and Wild and Scenic River designations are no burden for the Oregon public. Rather, these protective measures put the burden on those that would seek to despoil these areas and harm our natural heritage.

Most Oregonians who enjoy hunting, fishing, hiking, rafting or skiing in unspoiled areas are thankful for the work that has been done to safeguard our state's special places, and hopeful for more to come.

Brent Fenty is executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association. Scott Shlaes is executive director of Oregon Wild.

Please read the position description and application requirements HERE. 

The Communications & Membership Coordinator should have a passion for Oregon's wild deserts and be excited about motivating others to care about protecting places like Steens Mountain, Hart Mountain, the John Day River, Deschutes Canyon, and Owyhee Canyonlands.

This position is full-time with benefits. Please no phone calls.

Secretarial Order 3310 directs the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), based on the input of the public and local communities through its existing land management planning process, to designate appropriate areas with wilderness characteristics under its jurisdiction as "Wild Lands" and to manage them to protect their wilderness values.

"Americans love the wild places where they hunt, fish, hike, and get away from it all, and they expect these lands to be protected wisely on their behalf," said Salazar.  "This policy ensures that the lands of the American public are protected for current and future generations to come."

The BLM, which manages more land than any other federal agency, has not had any comprehensive national wilderness policy since 2003, when the wilderness management guidance in the agency's handbook was revoked as part of a controversial out-of-court settlement between then-Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, the State of Utah, and other parties.

"The new Wild Lands policy affirms the BLM's authorities under the law - and our responsibility to the American people - to protect the wilderness characteristics of the lands we oversee as part of our multiple use mission," said BLM Director Bob Abbey.  

Abbey said that Secretarial Order 3310 fills an important land management need for the public and the agency.  "Wild Lands," which will be designated through a public process, will be managed to protect wilderness characteristics unless or until such time as a new public planning process modifies the designation.  Because the "Wild Lands" designation can be made and later modified through a public administrative process, it differs from "Wilderness Areas," which are designated by Congress and cannot be modified except by legislation, and "Wilderness Study Areas," which BLM typically must manage to protect wilderness characteristics until Congress determines whether to permanently protect them as Wilderness Areas or modify their management. 

Secretarial Order 3310 also directs the BLM to maintain a current inventory of public lands with wilderness characteristics, which will contribute to the agency’s ability to make balanced, informed land management decisions, consistent with its multiple-use mission. 

"Simple principles guide this common-sense policy," said Salazar.  "First: the protection of wild lands is important to the American people and should therefore be a high priority in BLM's management policies.  Second: the public should have a say in designating certain public lands as 'Wild Lands' and expanding those areas or modifying their management over time.  And third: we should know more about which American lands remain wild, so we can make wise choices, informed by science, for our children, grandchildren and future generations."

"We are charting a new course for balanced land management which allows the BLM to take into account all of the resources for which it is responsible through a transparent, public land use planning process," said Abbey.

The Secretarial Order does not change the management of existing Wilderness Study Areas pending before Congress or congressionally designated units of the National Wilderness Preservation System.  BLM may also still develop recommendations, with public involvement, regarding possible Congressional designation of lands into the National Wilderness Preservation System.

The BLM manages 245 million acres in the United States, including iconic American landscapes like Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado, the Headwaters Forest Reserve's ancient redwood forest in California, and the Iditarod National Historic Trail in Alaska. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 11 western states and Alaska.  The bureau also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation.  The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.  The Bureau accomplishes its mission by managing activities such as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.

To read Secretarial Order 3310, click here.