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...
Read MoreLearn 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...
Read MoreHow 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...
Read MoreSoundscapes
ONDA Volunteer John Hartog Tells High Desert Stories Through Sounds, Not Words. By John Dulzo Oregon Natural Desert Association volunteers are as diverse as the land they work so hard to protect. Here is a story about one of our most active volunteers who brings his audio artistry to his high desert devotion. Read...
Read MoreUrsula Le Guin, author and desert lover
Ursula Le Guin, author and desert lover, dies at 88 On Monday, January 22, 2018, author Ursula LeGuin died at her home in Portland, Oregon. Le Guin is best known for her widely read and critically acclaimed science fiction novels, including The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea chronicles. In addition to her...
Read MoreHigh Desert Speaker Series
Curious about the High Desert? ONDA’s High Desert Speaker Series Presenters Have Stories and Knowledge To Share Do you know how many officially designated Wild and Scenic Rivers there are in eastern Oregon? Do you know the Ichiskhkiin word for salmon? Attending Oregon Natural Desert Association’s High Desert Speaker Series is a great way to build your high...
Read MoreThe New ONDA.org
Welcome to the new ONDA website. Well, hello there reader! If this is your first time visiting ONDA’s website, you can skip right past this post and carry on in your exploration of this site. Those of you who have been following ONDA for a few years will have noticed that our website looks...
Read More365 Days of Beauty
ONDA’s Wild Desert Calendar highlights the beauty of Oregon’s high desert In 2004, a crew of motivated, scrappy and talented Oregon Natural Desert Association supporters dreamed up the idea of creating a photographic collection dedicated solely to the beauty of Oregon’s high desert. Thus, ONDA’s Wild Desert Calendar was born!
Read MoreHow 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...
Read MoreGiving 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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