Annual SageCon Summit

Lynn Larsen

The SageCon Summit serves as a vital gathering for partners committed to building resilience in Oregon's sagebrush rangelands and the broader Great Basin region. Recognizing that no single agency or organization can address landscape-scale challenges alone, the Summit brings together diverse stakeholders working to create resilience in the sage steppe community.

The Summit's purpose aligns with the SageCon Partnership’s mission to support the ecology, economics, and society of Oregon's desert landscapes. As these regions face mounting pressures from wildfire, invasive annual grasses, and drought, the Summit provides a critical platform to foster the collaborative solutions needed for long-term sustainability.

At the annual Summit, participants:

  • Connect with partners working toward resilient rangelands in southeastern Oregon and across the Great Basin

  • Share information, ideas and resources to leverage collective knowledge

  • Inspire action to work proactively across boundaries and support locally-led collaborative efforts

By creating a supportive, enabling environment for strategic on-the-ground actions, the SageCon Summit embodies the Partnership's belief that the most durable solutions emerge when stakeholders work together across boundaries, combining communication, technical expertise, funding strategies, and shared priorities to build a more resilient future for sagebrush rangelands.

2026 SageCon Summit

Partnership Meeting

September 29 and 30th, 2026

Elks Lodge, Burns, Oregon

Registration is now open for the 11th annual SageCon Summit. This year, we will look at the work underway in Harney County through local partnerships, then zoom out to hear presentations on sage-grouse populations and rangeland restoration tools and techniques across the biome. The agenda is still in development, and we will send an update later this summer as speakers are confirmed.

Day 1: SageCon Summit Partnership Meeting

Agenda in development

Morning Programming

12:00 Lunch - Provided

Afternoon Programming

5:00 Poster session and happy hour 

6:00 Dinner - In-person attendees are invited to join us for a catered dinner at the Central Hotel

Come kick some dirt with us during this hands‑on workshop that aims to help ranchers, land managers, practitioners, and natural resource professionals learn practical and quick skills for use in the field. Through a mix of short expert talks and hands-on field training, participants will explore the core components of rangeland soil health, including biotic integrity, soil stability, and hydrologic function, and learn how these processes shape, and are shaped by, management decisions and disturbances. The morning will introduce key concepts, including nutrient and water cycles, plant–soil interactions, the effects of fire and invasive annual grasses, and principles for improving soil function. The afternoon field stations will bring these ideas to life, giving participants the chance to use simple tools to observe and assess soil properties including infiltration, stability, and to examine root and microbial communities, to connect soil‑health principles to real‑world management challenges in sagebrush country. Whether you are just curious about soil health or an experienced natural resource professional looking to deepen your understanding, this workshop offers practical, accessible tools for making more informed, soil‑conscious decisions on rangelands.

Day 2: Soil Health Workshop

September 30th, 8:00 am- 4 pm PST

Please register below to attend this event as a part of the SageCon Summit or as a stand alone workshop.

Register Now!

Hotels:

Burns has many wonderful local options for hotels, including the Horseshoe Inn,  The Central Hotel, Bon Temps Suites, and two(!) Rory and Ryan Hotels.

Harney County has so much to explore and we encourage you to check out the awesome local resources through This is Harney.

This free event is sponsored by

Previous SageCon Summits

Review past SageCon Summits and the resources below: