Hart Mountain

Dave Rein

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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Wildflower Poetry Reading

Wildflower Poetry Reading

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Sage-grouse Mating Dance

Sage-grouse Mating Dance

Goal

Provide pronghorn and other migrating species with safe passage through the refuge by removing all obsolete barbed wire from the refuge and support wildlife populations by assisting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with stewardship projects.

Timeline

Project Start Year: 1990s
Anticipated Completion: Ongoing

Acreage

Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge is a 270,000-acre wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon.

About this place

Hart Mountain was established in 1936 as a “range and breeding ground for pronghorn and other species of wildlife.” In addition to serving as a stronghold for pronghorn, the refuge encompasses some of the most important sage-grouse habitat in the nation and is critical habitat for myriad other sagebrush-dependent wildlife species. In the mid-1990s livestock grazing was determined to be incompatible with the refuge’s mission and cattle were removed, creating one of the largest ungrazed landscapes in the entire Great Basin.

Our efforts

Following the removal of livestock from the refuge, hundreds of miles of obsolete barbed wire fence remained on the landscape, posing a significant barrier to the movement of wildlife. ONDA’s efforts at Hart Mountain have focused on fence removal and assisting the USFWS with restoration and wildlife monitoring projects.

Project history

ONDA began fence removal at Hart Mountain in the 1990s. Since removing the “last” of the barbwire in 2012, ONDA continues stewardship efforts at the refuge by assisting in annual sage-grouse lek monitoring, mule deer surveys, juniper removal, fence flagging and other stewardship projects in partnership with the USFWS.