Devlin Holloway
Sage Brown Website
Alan Majchrowicz Website
Resource Management Plans
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
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.”
voices
Helen Harbin, ONDA Board Member
Helen Harbin, ONDA Board Member
“I connect with Oregon’s high desert through my feet, my eyes, my sense of smell, and all the things I hear. Getting out there is a whole body experience.” Supporting ONDA, Helen says, not only connects her with wild landscapes, but is also a good investment. “I felt like if I gave them $20, they might squeeze $23 out of it.”
What is the Lakeview Resource Management Plan?
The Bureau of Land Management creates Resource Management Plans for planning areas to guide their decision-making about the lands they manage.
Following two decades of successful advocacy and precedent-setting legal action led by ONDA, in 2020 the BLM is working on the Lakeview Resource Management Plan Amendment.
The process will create the blueprint for how nearly 3.4 million acres in southeastern Oregon — including beloved places in the Greater Hart-Sheldon Region like Beatys Butte, High Lakes and Juniper Mountain — are managed.
For public lands advocates, commenting during the Resource Management Planning process is an important opportunity to shape how lands are managed for decades to come. This process provides the chance to help protect sage-grouse habitat, determine where off-road vehicles can and cannot travel, and protect wild desert places to camp, hike and bird.
Three main issues – Lands with Wilderness Characteristics, Off-Road Vehicle and Travel Management, and Livestock Grazing – will be addressed in this amendment process.
Understand these and you’ll have the background to provide substantive input that the BLM needs to consider.
Dive deeper
Download this content
Speak Up for Southeastern Oregon
Nearly 5 million acres of public land in Owyhee Canyonlands need your voice this summer. The Bureau of Land Management has released its Draft Resource Management Plan Amendment for Southeastern Oregon. ONDA’s assessment of the BLM’s preferred alternative is that it: fails to adequately protect lands with wilderness characteristics disregards local stakeholder input fails to […]
Read MoreA Brief History of Public Lands
Native lands first America’s public lands, including those in present-day eastern Oregon, are filled with signs of the Indigenous people who inhabited those areas since time immemorial. Rock art, artifacts and structures offer tangible reminders, while songs and creation stories speak to the deep and enduring presence of people in these landscapes. The Northern Paiute […]
Read More