Our Take on Sec. Zinke’s Secret Monuments Report
The public finally has access to the Trump administration’s report on the review of 27 national monuments, but only because it was leaked to the press. Astonishingly, Zinke’s memo to the president still fails to provide key details on changes he’s recommending to these jewels of our public lands. Zinke’s report lacks clarity on...
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How to Talk to Your Friends about Public Lands
For most outdoor recreationists, talking about being out in nature comes, well, naturally. We share photos from our trips. We rave about the views we enjoyed and the wildlife we encountered. We invite our friends to join us on our next adventure. But, when it comes to talking about the policies that govern the public...
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Giving Wild Animals Freedom to Roam
Volunteers remove obsolete fence from more than 90,000 acres in the Steens Mountain Wilderness The 97,229 acre cow-free portion of the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area in southeastern Oregon is now completely free of obsolete barbed wire fence, thanks to the work of Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) volunteers who removed the last two miles...
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Zinke undercuts BLM sage grouse conservation plan
Secretary of the Interior Zinke undercuts BLM sage grouse conservation plan. The Department of the Interior recently issued a set of proposed changes for sage grouse conservation that will harm the species rather than help it. ONDA has been a leader in sage-grouse protection efforts by investing decades of effort in habitat monitoring, stakeholder...
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Wilderness Values: A View from Above
Oregon Natural Desert Association employee Jeremy Austin realizes a childhood dream, and takes to the sky across southeastern Oregon with LightHawk. Photos by Jim Davis with aerial support by LightHawk. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? As kids growing up, we used to ask ourselves this question almost daily. For...
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REI Continues Support of the Oregon Desert Trail
The Oregon Desert Trail (ODT) has made a lot of progress in the past year thanks to the continued support of the hiking community, gateway community partners, ONDA members and the outdoor industry. Highlights include 8 completed thru-hikes of the 750 mile route, 23 Oregon Desert Trail presentations throughout Oregon and Idaho reaching over...
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Owyhee Beckoning
Julie Weikel grew up in ‘ION’ country, the area where Idaho, Oregon and Nevada’s borders meet. She worked for over four decades in the area as a large animal vet, building an intimate, deep knowledge of the Owyhee’s people, history, land, water and wildlife. She’s traveled extensively throughout the Owyhee Canyonlands and explored many...
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Kirk Richardson: Alice Elshoff Award winner
For more than a decade, Kirk Richardson has been a strong voice for protecting Oregon’s high desert. He’s served on the Oregon Natural Desert Association Board of Directors, helped dream up the Live Monumental effort to protect areas like the Owyhee through his position at KEEN Footwear, and now is the recipient of the...
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Climate change in the sagebrush sea
Dr. Megan Creutzburg is a researcher at Oregon State University’s Institute for Natural Resources, where she provides technical coordination for the Oregon Sage Grouse Conservation Partnership (SageCon). With climate marches happening across the nation on Saturday, ONDA’s Corinne Handelman sat down with Megan for an interview about her research on sagebrush landscapes and climate change...
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Exploring Eastern Oregon by Boat
ONDA Oregon Desert Trail Coordinator Renee Patrick shares a “water alternate” option to the hiking route on the Chewaucan River. She likes to say, “rivers are trails too” and hopes others are inspired to view our desert landscapes from a different angle. The remote landscapes of eastern Oregon are often best explored on...
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