Climate change. Drought. Wildfire.

Craig Miller

fact

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

Ryan “Dirtmonger” Sylva, ODT thru-hiker 2017

“To me, it’s a thru-hike in an isolated place that promotes a conversation in land management, ethics and usage. Hiking across a vast and remote landscape and having a random and chance encounter with cowboys and hunters to discuss how ‘all of us’ should treat the land, how we all have a responsibility, no matter our political leanings, really showed me the pulse of the people in rural areas, especially here out west.”

listen

Great Horned Owls and Western Screech Owls

Lakeview Resource Management Plan

How would you manage a few million acres of public lands in Oregon’s high desert? You will have a critical opportunity to answer that question when the Bureau of Land […]

Desert Rivers

In Oregon’s high desert, water is life. Rivers, streams, creeks and lakes are critical to everything Oregonians value about desert public lands, from fish and wildlife to recreation and clean […]