Restoring Lands and Waters

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.

 

voices

Durlin Hicock, Alice Elshoff Award winner

Durlin Hicock, Alice Elshoff Award winner

“Protecting public land is part of my spiritual being. It’s central to my identity to be in wilderness and to see it protected.” Durlin is proud to protect public lands for future generations, saying, “The highlight of my childhood was our family’s weekend outdoor trips. I look forward to my grandchildren having similar experiences outside in their lifetimes, and it wouldn’t be possible without ONDA.”

fact

Bobcat

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

 

fact

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  

Sage Brown

Sarah Graham

Sage Brown   Website

Habitat Restoration

ONDA works to increase habitat resiliency in key locations across Oregon’s high desert to support fish and wildlife species such as sage grouse, steelhead, and pronghorn. We do this by completing strategic restoration projects that are targeted at addressing the impacts of climate change and drought while rehabilitating habitat that has been damaged by extractive uses such as livestock grazing and beaver trapping. By involving volunteers in these projects, ONDA gives people the opportunity to take part in hands-on stewardship work and deepen their relationship to the high desert.

Learn more about the types of stewardship and restoration work ONDA does. 

What We’ve Accomplished

Over the last decade, ONDA has made tangible improvements to the long-term health of Oregon’s high desert. Here is just a snapshot of what we have accomplished with the help of thousands of volunteers:

  • Over 115,000 trees planted
  • 34 miles of obsolete barbed wire fence removed
  • 78 miles of fence retrofitted to be safer for wildlife
  • 130 Beaver Dam Analogues installed
  • 90 miles of trail monitored

 

Featured Habitat Restoration Projects

View our Stewardship Story Map

In our Restoring Oregon’s Desert Landscapes Story Map, you can zoom into all the wilderness study areas we work in, watch our beaver dam building raise water levels and check out the impressive tally of work this community has accomplished.

View the Map