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People Who CollaborateAndy Swingle serves as the Business Manager for Burns Dental Group, where he oversees a wide range of responsibilities. "As Business Manager, my responsibilities focus on the day-to-day operations of the business, as well as the long-term goals for the practice. I wear quite a few hats, from payroll, accounts payable and receivable, Human Resources, hiring/training, doing annual reviews, and being the liaison for Burns Dental Group and the Youth Changing the Community Collaborative."(YCTC) READ MORE
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Major Climate Resilience Initiative Launching in Harney CountyWe're thrilled to announce that High Desert Partnership has been awarded $18.4 million to build climate resilience across Harney County. The reality of this funding is thanks to multiple partners' efforts to share with Natural Resources Conversation Service (NRCS) the challenges of water scarcity, wildfire risk and drought impacts we face in southeast Oregon and better yet, the solutions available for addressing these challenges across public and private land.
This transformative grant from the NRCS will help:
- Enhance water conservation
- Restore critical wetlands along the Pacific Flyway
- Protect our precious sagebrush ecosystem
- Reduce wildfire risks
- Support our local agricultural producers
Working alongside our amazing partners, they'll be implementing climate-smart practices that benefit both our community members and the incredible biodiversity that makes Harney County unique. READ MORE
Photo by Brandon McMullen
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How Does a HDP Collaborative Form? (Part 10)
The Glue and the Gas
High Desert Partnership exists to address complex challenges and opportunities that impact lives in southeast Oregon. Whether the challenge or opportunity has to do with bolstering the rural economy, preserving natural lands and waters, or fostering a more livable community, the solutions may be different but the process is the same. We are all about collaborative problem-solving and how this problem-solving impacts the communities, the economies and the ecology of southeast Oregon.
Our primary role is to support a network of Collaborative Working Groups—community-driven initiatives made up of diverse participants working together. Ultimately our goal is to create the space and encourage the dialogue needed for people to find an agreeable path forward. We convene meetings, facilitate discussions, identify and help secure resources, tap into outside expertise, ensure that deliverables are met so things keep moving forward, provide scientific monitoring services and tell stories about the work of the collaboratives. Change doesn’t happen overnight, so we become the glue that ensures partnerships stay together and the gas that keeps them running.
*In December, we close out this series with how a maturing collaborative functions.
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Neighbors Helping NeighborsThis summer, as wildfires raged across the Pacific Northwest, the vast rangelands and forests near Harney County faced an unprecedented challenge. The Falls and Telephone Fires—which started in July but raged for over a month, consuming more than 200,000 acres—contributed to a record-breaking season for Oregon wildfires, with more than 1.8 million acres burned across the state. But amidst the smoke and flames, a unique partnership between local volunteer firefighters and federal agencies became a crucial line of defense. At the heart of this partnership are the Rangeland Fire Protection Associations (RFPAs), volunteer groups of local landowners who join together to protect their properties and neighboring lands from wildfires. These organizations—which exist only in Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada—play a vital role in safeguarding millions of acres of rural land that would otherwise lack fire protection. READ MORE
Pictured: Rob Sharp of North Harney RFPA dousing flames.
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Juniper Thinning Safeguards Burns Butte Infrastructure and the Community
Anyone who’s traveled up the Hines Logging Road recently might have encountered tree-fallers or, later, slash piles just west of the Burns Butte Shooting Range. Such work is all part of a collaborative effort to protect critical infrastructure from wildfire. During a two-week span in September, contractors, who were operating on Bureau of Land Management directives, thinned and hand-piled 253 acres of juniper—an undertaking which was part of a broader strategy to reduce hazardous fuels. Additionally, this particular initiative, known as the Burns Butte Project, was focused on protecting essential communication towers and other key structures on Burns Butte. Pictured: Cell towers on Burns Butte surrounded by cut juniper piles. READ MORE.
Pictured: Cell towers on Burns Butte surrounded by cut juniper piles.
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Recipient of the State Land Board Partnership AwardWe are honored to that the Harney County Wildfire Collaborative and High Desert Partnership have received the prestigious State Land Board Partnership Award from the Oregon Department of State Lands. This recognition celebrates our commitment to protecting Oregon's natural resources through innovative collaboration.
The award highlights partnerships that enhance Oregon's school lands, waterways, and wetlands through exceptional stewardship. We're proud to be among the DSL Rangeland Program Partners working together to make a difference in our state.
A special thank you to the State Land Board—Oregon's Governor, Secretary of State, and Treasurer—for this recognition.
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Collaborative Effort Saves Mussels and Fish During Dam ReplacementThe replacement of the Dunn Dam on the Donner und Blitzen River was not a project that came together easily or quickly.
Ashley Tunstall, a regional biologist with Ducks Unlimited in charge of the project, said the dam was an old derelict structure originally built in the 1950s. “It was causing a litany of problems on the Donner und Blitzen River,” she said. The fish passage system on it was inoperable and disconnected from the rest of the system. The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was unable to use it for flood irrigation, causing about 2,500 acres of wet meadows to be dissociated from the floodplain. “The dam also had issues with really high velocity outflows that were causing bank undercutting and erosion downstream,” Tunstall continued. “If you look at old aerial imagery of it, you can see that the river had become very, very wide just downstream of that structure due to that erosion, which causes all kinds of flow issues and also sediment deposition downriver.” READ MORE
Pictured: The new rock chute Dunn Dam mimics a natural stream with a roughened channel.
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New Podcast Alert"This Place [by Oregon Humanities] is a series that asks Oregonians about their places: where they live, where they work, where they find joy." Brenda Smith, executive director of High Desert Partnership shared her experience recently as a resident of Harney County. LISTEN, just 3 1/2 minutes long.
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Harney Merch at How Bazaar and Indoor Farmers Market
Get in some holiday shopping in at the How Bazaar Kids Club market and the Indoor Farmers Market.
Nov 23, 9am-3pm at Geno's Gym in Burns.
Nov 30, 10am - 2pm at the 1899 Foundry Building downtown Burns.
Lots of great merchandise including Harney swag!
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2024 Upcoming Events
Thursday, November 7 | Harney County Forest Restoration Collaborative Forest Tour
Tuesday, November 19 | Harney County Wildfire Collaborative Meeting
Wednesday, November 20 | High Desert Partnership Board Meeting
Thursday, November 21 | Harney County Wildfire Collaborative Meeting
Tuesday, November 26 | Biz Harney Opportunity Collaborative Meeting
Tuesday, November 26 | Youth Changing the Community Collaborative Meeting
Wednesday, December 18 | High Desert Partnership Board Meeting
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| Six Collaboratives Supported By High Desert Partnership
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