Category: In the News
From the front page to the outback, a look at issues that affect Oregon’s high desert.
Hold Off on that Oregon Desert Trail Adventure
Please postpone or cancel your Oregon Desert Trail plans due to COVID 19. Because no one can travel long distances on the Oregon Desert Trail and be certain of avoiding any exposure to the coronavirus, and because anyone at any time can be a carrier of the virus without knowing it, it is clear...
Read More
Oregon’s High Desert Amid an Outbreak
The sun on our faces, the scent of sagebrush carried by a breeze, a distant call of raptors flying overhead, and the crunch of bare earth below our feet. We feel the pull of Oregon’s wilder side each and every day. And we know that the high desert is calling to many now. If...
Read More
51 Rivers That Could Be Wild and Scenic
Dear Senator Wyden, Thank you for your visionary leadership to preserve Oregon’s wild rivers, clean water, and wildlife for the future. I sincerely appreciate this opportunity to help develop legislation to protect my favorite rivers. For the past four years, I’ve been working to establish the 750-mile Oregon Desert Trail, a project of the...
Read More
A Major Milestone for the Owyhee Canyonlands
An impressive and critically important swath of sagebrush steppe habitat in eastern Oregon poised to gain protection as Wilderness Today, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden introduced the Malheur Community Empowerment for the Owyhee Act, a historic move to protect over 1.1 million acres of public lands in Malheur County centered around the Owyhee Canyonlands —...
Read More
Is the DOI dismantling the BLM?
Having a hard time keeping up with public lands news lately? We can’t blame you. The instability in the White House certainly makes all issues hard to track and follow, and as this Outside article summed it up: There’s a lot happening at DOI right now. In Oregon, over 13.5 million acres, mainly in...
Read More
Anti-Public Lands Activist Now Running BLM
The Bureau of Land Management’s new acting director, William Perry Pendley, is a longtime proponent of selling off public lands and waters The Trump administration’s move to appoint William Perry Pendley to the top policy position at the Bureau of Land Management comes as yet another blow in its continued assault on public lands....
Read More
Southeastern Oregon Draft Resource Management Plan Released
A Disturbing Trend Hits Oregon’s Desert Public Lands Bureau of Land Management releases Draft Resource Management Plan for Southeastern Oregon, and conservation goals are ignored On May 31, 2019, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a Draft Southeastern Oregon Resource Management Plan Amendment covering 4.6 million acres in the Owyhee Canyonlands. The public...
Read More
Senator Merkley Steps Up for Sutton Mountain
Today, Sen. Jeff Merkley, announced that he will introduce the Sutton Mountain and Painted Hills Area Preservation and Economic Enhancement Act that would establish the Sutton Mountain Wilderness to protect an area in the John Day River Basin renowned for spectacular scenery and prime wildlife habitat. “With this legislation, we’ll make sure that future...
Read More
Wild and Scenic Rivers
The Wild and Scenic Rivers of Oregon’s Sagebrush Steppe. America’s rivers face many threats — dams and alteration, excessive use and pollution among them. Thankfully, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which passed in 1968 with bipartisan support, gave people who care about rivers a tool “to preserve rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and...
Read More
Ursula 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 More