Renowned for its vast wild lands and world-class wildlife, the Greater Hart-Sheldon features 3.2 million acres of Bureau of Land Management public lands that span 150 miles, from Fort Rock and Devil’s Garden in the north all the way south to the Nevada border. This rolling sagebrush sea is home to pronghorn, greater sage-grouse, pygmy rabbit and dozens of species of migratory birds. Rich with cultural history, the region also supports extraordinary backcountry recreation and hosts the Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary, the largest dark sky reserve in the world.
In 2025, the BLM released the final Lakeview Resource Management Plan Amendment that will protect and conserve more than 1.1 million acres of the wildest and most ecologically vital public lands in the Greater Hart-Sheldon. The new plan builds upon a half-million acres of wilderness-quality lands already designated in the region, so that more than half of all the public lands in the Greater Hart-Sheldon are now protected or conserved.
Oregon Natural Desert Association was involved in this seminal planning process from the beginning, inventorying wildlands, monitoring habitats and instanding that the new plan adhere to both science and law in managing and conserving public lands, waters and wildlife.
This timeline charts ONDA’s involvement in the plan over more than two decades!
