Wilderness Inventories, and Why They Matter

Fragile, vulnerable and finite, Oregon’s desert wild lands are endlessly valuable. These public lands protect wildlife, provide for climate resiliency, preserve cultural resources, and serve as a refuge for people seeking solitude in an increasingly hectic world.

ONDA was established to nurture these values, protect public lands and support wilderness conservation. As an essential part of our work, we’ve supported volunteers and staff for decades to inventory desert public lands for their wilderness character, a legally defined and holistic set of qualities that make an area uniquely wilderness compared to other lands. The detailed on-the-ground information gained from these inventories provides ONDA with the data necessary to compel federal agencies to provide appropriate land management. By meticulously photographing and mapping these areas, ONDA is able to protect some of Oregon’s most essential desert landscapes. To date, we have secured protections for more than 4.4 million acres of wilderness-quality lands in Oregon’s high desert.

Now we’re at it again. This summer we deployed two field technicians to inventory wilderness character across more than 367,000 acres south and east of Steens Mountain. Because much of the Steens Mountain region is already protected, our technicians were tasked with inventorying public lands beyond this protected expanse, in the Sheepshead and Pueblo mountains. Their aim was to see whether these public lands qualify for wilderness or other conservation designations. If so, ONDA could use that information to press for new protections that would create larger blocks of uninterrupted wild lands as we have achieved on other landscapes. Our wilderness inventory in the Steens Mountain region will continue in 2026, building on ONDA’s rich legacy of advocacy for public lands management and protection across the high desert.