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A healthy snowpack in the Harney Basin benefits not only ranchers and farmers who rely on it to grow hay, but also migrating birds who depend on the flood irrigated wet meadows in the spring as they travel to their northern breeding grounds. Current snowpack numbers put the Harney Basin at a snow water equivalent of 122 percent of normal as of March 3, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

How does this water journey from the higher mountain elevations surrounding the Harney Basin (uplands) end up in the wet meadows (lowlands) where birds and ranchers benefit? It starts in the Blue Mountains to the north and Steens Mountain to the south.

As of Jan. 23, the Harney Basin snowpack was at 114 percent of normal, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service interactive snow water equivalent map website. While ranchers and researchers have noted that we haven’t had the early snowstorms in November and December as we did last year, this year’s numbers still give reason for locals to be optimistic about the water year.

Portland Audubon and the Harney Basin Wetlands Collaborative, a High Desert Partnership collaborative, are working together using song meters to help monitor birds in the Harney Basin. This information will help researchers better understand how birds utilize and adapt to habitat quality influenced by ever-changing weather conditions, as well as the stewardship strategies implemented by land managers.

During the past two years the Harney County Wildfire Collaborative implemented the Southeast Oregon Wildfire Resiliency Project (SOWR) which consisted of more than 80,000 acres of critical fuel treatments to enhance wildfire resiliency across sagebrush steppe landscapes in Southeast Oregon thanks to funding from Oregon Senate Bill 762. Mid 2023 the door was opened to apply for additional funding which could enable round two of the SOWR project to be implemented; as a result of the application, $3.8 million is coming into Harney and Malheur Counties. With this funding the Harney County Wildfire Collaborative partners will implement wildfire resiliency treatments on an additional 22,000 acres of public and private land in southeast Oregon beginning this year and into 2025.

Updating the Old Dams Will Enable More Efficient Water Use

Vegetation is thriving and invasive carp numbers are dwindling.

In 2021, Oregon Senate Bill 762 passed, allocating $220 million to help Oregon modernize and improve wildfire preparedness. The Harney County Wildfire Collaborative applied for and secured more than $5 million to address wildfire issues in the southeast corner of Oregon in Harney and Malheur counties through the Southeast Oregon Wildfire Resilience Project. Click the headline above to open a web page that takes you through the planning, implementation and impact story of this project.

High Desert Partnership's Summer Monitoring Crew play an important role in furthering collaborative work in Harney County.

Crowd sourcing wildfire detection with ALERT Wildfire cameras.

In a win for the Harney County community, the recent Oregon state legislative session resulted in the passage of bills that will send in a total of $2.5 million to support critical wet meadow work and collaboration in the Harney Basin.

A harsh yet vulnerable place that is home to a diverse species of mammals, reptiles and birds.

While birds are on the forefront with spring migration, other creatures also benefit from improved habitat.

Targeting sites for seeding grasses as part of the Southeast Oregon Wildfire Resiliency project is one
piece of the puzzle toward making the sagebrush more resilient.

A look at "collaborative conservation" across the west with a spotlight on HDP's brand of collaboration.

The Pacific Flyway famously runs right through the Harney Basin, which provides critical habitat for migratory birds.

Every business in Harney County is essential and there's a program, CO.STARTERS, that helps entrepreneurs develop skills and build their confidence as small business owners.

The Harney Basin is a complex and conflicted landscape that is benefitting from informed restoration efforts through collaboration and the work of the Harney Basin Wetlands Collaborative.

The Harney County Wildfire Collaborative partners are targeting strategic sites for Juniper removal for restoration work happening under The Southeast Oregon Wildfire Resiliency Project funded through Oregon Senate Bill 762. In areas where Juniper trees have been removed, more resilient, fire-resistant landscapes are already beginning to take hold. Just as Juniper encroachment quickly pushes out native species, Juniper removal creates room for them to take hold once again.

Available from ScienceDirect a special issue of Rangelands authored by presenters at the December 2020 Invasive Annual Grass Workshop. The success of the workshop led to an opportunity for a special peer-reviewed issue of Rangelands journal to be developed. The authors in this Rangelands special issue came together with their respective research and management perspectives to provide a comprehensive picture for effectively coordinating and collaborating in managing invasive annual grasses at a landscape scale.

It's been a relatively wet April and May in Harney County but there's more to the story.