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...
Read MoreREI 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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Celebrating 30 years of high desert conservation
For three decades, ONDA has been a strong, consistent voice for Oregon’s high desert. It all began in 1987 with extraordinary people concerned about an extraordinary place, and today has blossomed into the only organization that works exclusively on behalf of eastern Oregon’s high desert public lands and waterways. It’s been more than three...
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Oregon breweries call for protection of Owyhee Canyonlands
Over two dozen Oregon craft beer brewers from around the state have joined together to call for the permanent protection of the Owyhee Canyonlands. Ross Putnam, cofounder of Base Camp Brewing Company, shares why his brewery got involved and why it’s important to protect the Owyhee, now. In the fall of 2015, we packed...
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Getting inspired, getting involved
Bend resident Sarah Graham has long cherished the outdoors. But this past year inspired her to become active to help protect public lands, aiming to ensure they continue to belong to all Americans. Here, she shares her story. The story of how my husband and I came to be Bendites is a common tale....
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A Fall Hiking Perspective on the Oregon Desert Trail
The Oregon Desert Trail’s first fall thru-hiker, Bob “Huck Finn” Jessee, completed the route in 2015. Read about his adventure and tips for getting out in the shoulder season. The Oregon Desert Trail (ODT) may have been Bob “Huck Finn” Jessee’s second thru-hike, but following his successful 2013 completion of the 3,000-mile Continental...
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