ONDA’s Restoration Work

Over the last two decades, ONDA has engaged volunteers in projects to plant thousands of trees, restore dozens of miles of streams, decommission old roads and remove enough barbed wire to stretch from one end of Oregon to the other.

Our work improves fish and wildlife habitat in key locations across Oregon’s high desert where climate change, drought and extractive human uses have diminished ecosystem health. Our strategic, science-based projects address these issues and support the recovery of hundreds of species including desert icons such as sage-grouse, steelhead and pronghorn.

There are three main types of restoration work we engage in:

 

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The Last Darkness

The Last Darkness

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Terry Butler, 2018 Volunteer of the Year

Terry Butler, 2018 Volunteer of the Year

“If I have to pick a favorite place in Oregon’s high desert, it would be Sutton Mountain, but I’m excited about all of the Wilderness Study Areas,” says Terry, adding, “Each is a gem to explore, and I hope they all get protection someday… I love the scale of the physical beauty of the desert.”

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Helen Harbin on Wildlife

Helen Harbin on Wildlife

Gena Goodman-Campbell

Riparian Restoration

ONDA’s riparian restoration efforts target streams with protected fish species such as redband trout and steelhead. We strive to improve fish and wildlife habitat by reestablishing conditions that encourage the return of beaver; lush stream banks and lazy meandering streams with deep, cold pools. We plant trees to help reduce erosion, lower water temperatures, and provide the food and building materials that allow beaver to move in and resume their work of constructing dams, a critical part of the long-term restoration process.

Bill Crowell

Habitat Connectivity

Across Oregon’s desert lands, thousands of miles of barbed wire fences fragment the landscape. Many of these fences no longer serve a purpose and interfere with the movement of native wildlife such as greater sage-grouse, elk, deer, and antelope. By removing obsolete barbed wire fences and retrofitting needed fences with wildlife-friendly wire, our volunteers contribute to improving wildlife migration corridors.

Sage Brown   Website

Habitat and Recreation Monitoring

ONDA offers a variety of independent monitoring projects through which volunteers act as the eyes on the ground to identify and repair recreation impacts,  gather information to our restoration projects and bring  new stewardship needs to light. The work our volunteers complete across eastern Oregon informs our conservation and legal work and underpins our ongoing commitment to protect, defend, and restore the high desert.

 

Visit ONDA’s stewardship trips page to find a meaningful restoration, stewardship or monitoring project to take part in. We lead guided, small group, multi-day volunteer service trips in some of Oregon’s most remote and beautiful landscapes.

 

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Stewardship Trips

Registration for 2025 Spring Stewardship Trips is now open! For updates, subscribe to ONDA’s e-newsletter. Oregon Natural Desert Association hosts dozens of stewardship trips and independent stewardship projects each year. […]

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