The area spanning from the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge south to the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge encompasses a unique and sensitive high desert landscape that is critically important for yearly migrations and wintering of pronghorn antelope. It also is a key habitat stronghold for sage grouse.

Both the Hart Mountain and Sheldon refuges were created for the conservation of the pronghorn antelope. Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 "as a range and breeding ground for antelope and other species of wildlife." Similarly, the area that is now the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1931 "primarily for the conservation of the antelope (American pronghorn) and other native wildlife forms." Management has since grown to include conservation of a wide variety of wildlife and the restoration of native ecosystems found within the refuges.

Along with several other conservation groups, ONDA succeeded in removing livestock grazing from Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in 1992. Since then, the refuge has rebounded to a lush, vibrant native grassland. It is home to more than 300 species of wildlife, including pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, sage-grouse, and mountain quail. The 278,000-acre refuge is one of the largest habitats in the arid West that is not grazed by domestic livestock. Hart Mountain is a massive fault block ridge, which rises high above the Warner Valley and is carved out by a series of spectacular gorges.

The Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge also is ungrazed by domestic livestock. Its 573,000-acres represents one of the largest, last, relatively intact examples of a high desert sagebrush-steppe ecosystem in the Great Basin. Together, these two wildlife refuges and the biological corridor that lies between them are an extraordinarily important part of Oregon's high desert and the northern Great Basin. ONDA has nominated these areas to be managed comprehensively as the Sage Grouse National Conservation Area.  

ONDA also has turned back repeated attempts by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to reintroduce lethal predator control on the Refuge, and we are currently developing a conservation proposal to combine Hart Mountain with Nevada's Sheldon Wildlife Refuge and further protect precious habitat for greater sage-grouse.

See other ONDA comments and actions in and around the Hart Mountain-Sheldon refuges.