The Harney Way

The Harney Way is a 30-minute documentary that explores the collaborative spirit in the Harney Basin of Southeastern Oregon, where ranchers and conservationists explore a basin-wide vision and actions that conserve wet meadow habitats in perpetuity and in turn support flood irrigation, agricultural activities, health and survival of bird populations, and the Harney Basin economy.

The unique, high desert hydrology of the area, sometimes flooding, sometimes dry, calls for highly adaptive responses from wildlife, plants, and humans. An important stop on the Pacific Flyway, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding private lands call for careful management. Through the voices and activities of leading conservationists, ranching families, The Burns Paiute Tribe, and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, we are immersed in the world of Steens Mountain and the Silvies and Donner Und Blitzen watersheds. This collaborative approach provides community optimism that this complex landscape can be maintained into the future in support of both diverse bird populations and the livelihoods of rural families and communities.

The film is dedicated to Conservationist Bob Sallinger, a major voice in the collaborative effort to integrate social, economic, and ecological values to support wetlands, streams, flood-irrigated meadows, emergent marshes, and other wetland types of the Harney Basin.  

Following the film, learn more about the Harney Basin Wetland Collaborative and Friends of Malheur Refuge’s on going work in the Harney Basin and meet Bird Conservation Oregon’s first Bob Sallinger Fellowship awardee.