For this week’s episode of “Bend Don’t Break” we talk with Ryan Houston, who has been serving as executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association since 2018. Growing up in California, Houston developed an early interest the desert environment and eventually earned a master’s in ecology from the University of Arizona. He has a reputation in Central Oregon as a collaborator and coalition-builder and spearheaded dozens of efforts to conserve the Deschutes Basin during his work with the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council where he was the executive director for two decades.
Houston framed the conversation by describing the work of the Bureau of Land Management, why it was founded and what it is empowered to do in its current form. One of ONDA’s primary goals is keeping this agency accountable, as the BLM oversees millions of acres in Oregon alone. Over the next few years, the BLM will be updating its management plans for some vital high desert regions in Eastern Oregon.
