The Harney Way; a film screening

About the film: The Harney Way is a 30-minute documentary that celebrates 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 agricultural activities, the 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 alike. An important stop on the Pacific Flyway, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding private lands need careful management. Through the voices and activities of leading conservationists, ranching families, The Burns Paiute Tribe, and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the film immerses viewers in the world of Steens Mountain and the Silvies and Donner Und Blitzen watersheds. Stakeholders’ collaborative approach to conservation 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 and features Conservationist Bob Sallinger, a major voice in the collaborative effort to integrate social, economic, and ecological values to support the wetlands, streams, flood-irrigated meadows, emergent marshes, and other wetland types of the Harney Basin. 

The Friends of Malheur NWR will join Bird Conservation Oregon to celebrate a record of quiet conservation success in Oregon’s southeast corner, where Bob’s way and the Harney Way came together to rethink how to live in and protect the high desert in the face of an uncertain future. Information regarding tickets to follow.

TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE CLINTON STREET THEATER STARTING MAY 1ST, 2025