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 intensive on-the-ground stewardship with efforts to protect large landscapes. ONDA partners with land management agencies, private landowners, and tribal entities to undertake long-term restoration projects to improve land, waterways, wildlife and communities in Oregon’s high desert. While much of our wild 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.
ONDA connects people to landscapes in need of care in three key ways:
- Independent Stewards – We match interested people with meaningful projects in the desert. Participants gain new skills and give their desert adventures an elevated purpose.
- Stewardship Trips – We lead guided, small group, multi-day service trip in some of Oregon’s most remote and beautiful landscapes. Group stewardship trips are currently on hold, please refer to the Independent Stewards program for volunteer opportunities in the high desert.
- Tribal Stewards – We partner with Northwest Youth Corps to introduce Indigenous teens and young adults to careers in natural resource management and to connect them with their current and ancestral homelands.
And, ONDA stewardship work can be sorted into four main categories:
Read on to learn about what’s involved with each type of restoration work and to learn about the wild places where we’ve made a long-term commitment to restoration.
