Oregon Natural Desert Association sustains and enhances the health of Oregon’s high desert through stewardship and restoration.
ONDA takes a holistic approach to conservation in Oregon’s high desert, pairing on-the-ground stewardship with efforts to protect large landscapes. ONDA partners with public land managers, Native American Tribes, and conservation landowners to undertake science-based restoration projects to increase habitat resiliency and provide long-term benefits to desert lands and waters. While much of our remote terrain is beautiful and pristine in many ways, human actions over time have negatively impacted some areas and our stewardship work helps restore those areas.
Connecting People to the Desert
ONDA works to connect people to the high desert and restore a reciprocal relationship between humans and the landscape through hands-on work to improve the health of desert ecosystems.
Volunteers
Every year, we engage hundreds of volunteers in meaningful restoration, stewardship and monitoring projects in the most important habitats across Oregon’s high desert. We lead guided, small group, multi-day service trips in some of Oregon’s most remote and beautiful landscapes.
Visit ONDA’s stewardship trips page to find the full calendar and detailed descriptions of our current stewardship trip offerings. We encourage people of all ability levels and backgrounds to get out with us to take part in our hands-on stewardship work and deepen their relationship with Oregon’s high desert. All trips are free and no experience is required. ONDA provides all of the tools, equipment and training necessary for the project.
Tribal Stewards
ONDA’s Tribal Stewards program was created in 2019 and provides paid opportunities for tribal youth to work on restoration projects and gain experience in conservation and stewardship career paths. The goal of this program is to create new conservation leaders in tribal communities while completing projects to improve ecosystem health in Oregon’s high desert.
Learn more about ONDA’s Tribal Stewards program.