Group Volunteer Opportunities

ONDA

Is your school or community group, hiking club, or business interested in volunteering with ONDA?

Fill out the interest form below to let us know a little more about your group and what type of project you are interested in. Please note: we work across Oregon’s high desert on a limited number of restoration projects each year and plan our work well in advance. Projects that meet your group’s needs may take several months to line up with our restoration schedule. Six to 12 months notice is ideal.

Our stewardship projects occur across eastern Oregon and focus on river and stream (riparian) restoration, uplands sagebrush restoration, wildlands monitoring and trail maintenance. Learn more about the areas we work and the types of restoration projects we do. We have several models for stewardship projects:

  • Independent Stewards projects: Your group takes on an independent project assignment, ranging from wildlands monitoring to adopting a section of trail to maintain. We’ll provide all the details and materials you’ll need to complete the project, you organize your group and go out to the field on your schedule within the project timeframe.
  • Onsite trips for community groups: We’ll work with you to determine if one of our planned restoration projects is a good match for your group’s interests and availability. You’ll organize the participants and coordinate transportation logistics and ONDA stewardship staff will meet you on site to provide tools and training for a work day in the field. Advance notice helps us plan, so please fill out the form below if you’re interested in these trips.
  • Custom one day or multiday trips for businesses: If you want a custom trip built around your business’s interests and schedule, consider becoming a business member. Visit our Business Members page to learn more. Business members support critical conservation and restoration efforts across Oregon’s high desert, providing essential habitat for fish and wildlife and wild places for all people to treasure and explore, now and always. These trips require advance planning and will be available again in 2022, so please let us know now if you’re interested.

voices

John Cunningham, ONDA member and volunteer

John Cunningham, ONDA member and volunteer

Restoration is hard slow work. It takes hold, or it doesn’t, in fits and starts. The immensity of the need can be discouraging, but we must carry on. I am so thankful ONDA carries on.

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Connecting Trails

Connecting Trails

The Oregon Desert Trail ties into two National Recreation Trails: the Fremont National Recreation Trail and Desert Trail.

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What defines Oregon’s high desert?

What defines Oregon’s high desert?

Bounded by the Cascade Mountains to the west and the Blue Mountains to the north, Oregon’s high desert covers approximately 24,000 square miles. Annual rainfall in the high desert varies from 5 to 14 inches. The average elevation is 4,000 feet; at 9,733 feet, the summit of Steens Mountain is the highest point in Oregon’s high desert. The terrain of the high desert was mostly formed by a series of lava flows that occurred between 30 and 10 million years ago.

Sources: The Oregon Encyclopedia; Wikipedia