Getting Desert Desperate

Mark Darnell

voices

Cregg Large, member since 2009

“I came to Oregon 12 years ago from Texas. Texas, for all its size, has very little public land. Coming to Oregon has made me realize the special gift we as Americans have in our public lands. Volunteering with an organization like ONDA is my way of reciprocating for this gift. Through restoration efforts, I feel we are helping leave a better place than we found it. Through advocating for protection for public lands, we safeguard migration routes for animals and keep the land where it belongs: with the public.”

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Spring Basin Wilderness

With 10,000 acres of undulating terrain, secluded canyons and spectacular vantages of the John Day Country, Spring Basin is magnificent to explore This public treasure, forever protected as Wilderness, offers a profusion of desert wildflowers in the spring and year-round recreational opportunities for hikers, horseback

watch

Wildflower Poetry Reading

1) Submit Your Best Desert Photos

ONDA is now accepting photographs for consideration for our Wild Desert Calendar. This member-driven publication gets better each year, and we’re looking forward to seeing what incredible high desert images you have to share with us! Sift through your digital photo albums, relive the joys, and send your ten best images our way by June 10.

Submit Now

2) Read Our Oregon Desert Trail Guidebook

Planning for an extended journey through the high desert takes time and focus. If you’ve got those two things, then you’ll enjoy sinking into ONDA’s 113-page Oregon Desert Trail Guidebook, which has all the maps and public lands management information you need to plan an adventurous route through Oregon's high desert.

Download Now

Next level option:

Plan your own off-trail desert route.

Pro tip: Get a premium subscription to Gaia GPS so you can see private land layers, and plan away!

3) Make Desert-Inspired Arts and Crafts

Perhaps you'd like to paint a landscape based on a Wild Desert Calendar image? Press desert wildflowers to make bookmarks? Use your old calendar to make cool envelopes? Follow the link below to see ONDA’s one, and maybe only, attempt at a DIY upcycling project! We'd love to see your pandemic-induced creativity. Email onda@onda.org or tag us on Instagram at @theoregondesert.

Make Cool Envelopes

hiker walking across the sagebrush steppe in

4) Watch A Desert Adventure Film

Need something a little different than Tiger King? Check out "Sagebrush Sisters" to see if three women in their 60s, 70s, and 80s can hike from the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada to Hart Mountain in Oregon. You can also look for "Sage Steppes" and "The Last Darkness."

Watch Sagebrush Sisters

Next level option:

Binge-watch trail videos, or make a short film from your own desert video footage! For oh-so-many on the trail videos, follow the Oregon Desert Trail Facebook page, where we are posting an ODT video every day until we run out of episodes, or the shelter in place advisories lift, whichever comes first.

How to Shoot Video

5) Become a Better Desert Advocate

ONDA launched a digital High Desert Academy events in April. We've already taken people through some of the desert's most incredible landscapes and given people practical desert recreation advice. Next up: a set of three How-To talks that will help you build your knowledge and skills base to be an even stronger desert advocate.

See All Events

Next level option:

In the How To Protect Desert Rivers webinar, you’ll learn that writing a letter to the editor is a fairly straightforward way to garner attention for the public lands issues that matter most to you. Check out our tips, grab your keyboard, and write away.

Write a Letter to the Editor

Sage Sustainers Membership

Live your values with a monthly gift in support of Oregon’s desert public lands, waterways, and wildlife. Sage Sustainers members propel critical conservation efforts alongside a dynamic community of advocates. […]

Recreation Resources

Conditions on the ground in Oregon’s high desert can change rapidly and recreational facilities can become partially or fully closed due to any number of circumstances, including snowfall, wildfire — […]