Jim Davis
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.
Stewardship Fence Building Timelapse
Bobcat
Found only in North America, where it is the most common wildcat, the bobcat takes its common name from its stubby, or “bobbed,” tail. The cats range in length from two to four feet and weigh 14 to 29 pounds. Bobcats mainly hunt rabbits and hares, but they will also eat rodents, birds, bats, and even adult deer.
Latin name: Lynx rufus fasciatus
The Bureau of Land Management creates Resource Management Plans for planning areas to guide their decision-making about the lands they manage.
Following two decades of successful advocacy and precedent-setting legal action led by ONDA, in 2020 the BLM is working on the Lakeview Resource Management Plan Amendment.
The process will create the blueprint for how nearly 3.4 million acres in southeastern Oregon — including beloved places in the Greater Hart-Sheldon Region like Beatys Butte, High Lakes and Juniper Mountain — are managed.
For public lands advocates, commenting during the Resource Management Planning process is an important opportunity to shape how lands are managed for decades to come. This process provides the chance to help protect sage-grouse habitat, determine where off-road vehicles can and cannot travel, and protect wild desert places to camp, hike and bird.
Three main issues – Lands with Wilderness Characteristics, Off-Road Vehicle and Travel Management, and Livestock Grazing – will be addressed in this amendment process.
Understand these and you’ll have the background to provide substantive input that the BLM needs to consider.
Tim Neville
Public lands are one of our country’s greatest assets. During public comment periods, you have the right and the responsibility to share your thoughts on how these lands are managed. […]
Read MoreDevlin Holloway
Sage Brown Website
Alan Majchrowicz Website
Native lands first America’s public lands, including those in present-day eastern Oregon, are filled with signs of the Indigenous people who inhabited those areas since time immemorial. Rock art, artifacts […]
Read MoreThe “Greater Hart-Sheldon: Sagebrush Stronghold” story map is a science based, user driven exploration of one of the last sagebrush strongholds on the planet. Check out the resources and content […]
Read More