In Oregon’s high desert, water is life.
The rivers, streams, and creeks that weave through Oregon’s high desert support an abundance of life and are essential to supporting biodiversity and climate resilience on the region’s public lands. While waterways, wetlands and riparian areas make up a mere 2% of Oregon’s high desert, more than 80% of birds and wildlife in the region depend on these oases to survive.
Oregon Natural Desert Association works to protect, defend, and restore the most important waterways in the high desert, including the John Day River, Owyhee River, South Fork Crooked River, Malheur River, and many more.
We advocate to permanently protect some of the most spectacular rivers in Oregon by supporting conservation legislation like the River Democracy Act. This proposal would expand Wild and Scenic River designations, protecting rivers from development that would diminish fish and wildlife habitat and other values. Additional efforts, such as our campaign to protect one million acres of public land in the Owyhee Canyonlands, would conserve important desert rivers by establishing wilderness protections across entire watersheds.
To support thriving, healthy desert rivers, ONDA supported a new state law that will promote restoration of tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams across Oregon’s high desert by preventing beaver trapping on designated waterways flowing through public lands. As beaver populations recover over time, this keystone species will do more of what it does best: maintain rivers and streams in ways that improve habitat and water quality for fish, birds and other wildlife.
In places where rivers and streams have been degraded, our restoration work promotes the recovery of natural ecological processes that support diverse communities of native vegetation, improved in-stream habitat, and the cool, clean water that was once more abundant throughout the region.
