How to Stay Hydrated
Finding water in the desert can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. If you were hiking 2 million to 10,000 years ago, finding water in Eastern Oregon would be easy as the area was covered by large pluvial lakes. Today? Not so much! When you’re planning to head into Oregon’s high desert, where to...
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Birding at Malheur
A guide to watching migrating birds at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for first-time visitors. Few events will put you in touch with the rhythms of the natural world quite like watching a migration. Oregonians are lucky to have one of North America’s great animal migrations right in our backyard. Each spring and fall...
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Learn to Strut
ONDA to teach sage-grouse mating dance to all members April 1, 2018 (BEND, Ore.)—What started as a rousing way to open up staff meetings soon spread to board meetings and stewardship trips, and now, in response to high demand from our members, Oregon Natural Desert Association is excited to announce that you, too, can learn the...
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Ten Springtime Adventures
Have the longer days and warmer temps led you to experience bouts of day-dreaming and window-gazing? Put that wanderlust to work! Plan on your trip to the desert, and get out there! With flowers blooming, birds migrating and roads drying out, spring is just about the best time to explore southeast Oregon. Here, we...
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Meet Michelle Smith and Sam Beebe
These ONDA members gave the classic American West road trip a public lands twist Inspired by a desire to see public lands across the West, Michelle Smith and Sam Beebe took a nearly 5-month and 16,000-mile road trip last year to better understand public lands and the current issues and communities around them. They...
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How to Take Better Photos of Oregon’s High Desert
Conservation photographers share their advice: knowledge, persistence, patience The arid landscape that covers 27.6 million acres of Oregon is packed with opportunities to make interesting photographs. You can fill your frame with impressive canyons, alkali flats that tend toward abstraction or gnarled ancient juniper trees rich with character. Each year, Oregon Natural Desert Association’s...
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A New Plan for 5 Million Acres
5 Reasons to Care, 3 Topics to Understand, 1 click to comment How would you manage 5 million acres? Right now, you have a once-in-a-generation chance to answer that very question. The Bureau of Land Management is seeking input from the public on the Southeast Oregon Resource Management Plan Amendment (SEORMP), a process that...
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Going Public: Becoming a Public Land Leader
Brittany Leffel hosted a Public Land Leader gathering in December and wrote about her experience “going public”. Behind every beloved trail is a crew of stewards working to preserve the trail. Likewise, behind every wilderness area and national forest are people speaking up for our public lands. I’ve always taken pride in my...
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Species Spotlight: Mountain Mahogany
By LeeAnn Kriegh Trees live their lives on a different timescale than ours, so it helps to slow ourselves down to fully appreciate them. Certainly, a shrubby little tree like curlleaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) isn’t going to catch our eye if we’re racing past along the trail. But take time for a closer look,...
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Ten Winter Adventures in the High Desert
Five for No Snow, Five for Snow. Winter in Oregon’s high desert can look and be quite different from one year to the next. In winter 2017, copious snowfall covered much of the sagebrush sea with feet of fun for skiers and snowshoers. The 2018 winter season lent itself more to hiking than snow...
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