Do you have any current information on the status of ...? 

Sad to say, we do not have the resources to acquire and to organize general information on the status and distribution of the vastly larger group (think thousands) of species that are common here in Oklahoma, and which are doing quite well, thank you, as far as anyone knows.

This is not to say that information about common species is not available online. For example, try the USDA Plants Database for information about native and exotic plant species, their whereabouts, medicinal properties, status and the like.  Online field guides at enature have accounts of animal species with photographs and the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web is also well stocked and not to be missed. If you're interested in more technical conservation information about a species, we recommend a visit to the NatureServe Explorer, whose data comes from state natural heritage programs like ours.

How can I find information about all species or habitats occurring at a site? 

Let's say you are starting from scratch, wanting information about a site in Oklahoma that interests you. You're not a biologist, but as we know, you do have a computer with Internet access, probably an e-mail account and a telephone.  You will not need another four years of college to find or to interpret whatever species or habitat information is out there. You won't even have to learn to pronounce unfamiliar scientific names, just write them down.

Your search strategy will assume that
-you want freely available information;
-the existence of site specific information is possible, but unlikely;
-you will have to compile the information yourself;
-some species typical of the region will also occur at your site;
-you can locate your site on a map;
-you will get more help from a specialist when you offer your own species list for review
than if you expect someone to do all the work for you.

General observations
Publicly available information tends to be free of charge, but it also tends to be imprecise and probably old; easier to come by and descriptive for a continent or a geographic region, but hard or impossible to apply to a single site. There's a lot of public information on the Internet, sometimes more confusing than helpful, sometimes of obscure origins, but it's free.

In part because most of Oklahoma is in private ownership, state or university biologists have not had access to private lands for biological inventory.  For any given site, it's a good bet that no species information exists because no inventory has been done.  A corollary is that, where species information has been collected on private land, no one knows about it,  or it's on paper or in notebooks or in someone's head or it's proprietary information. The other part of the problem is that systematic field inventories are expensive to do. They may take several seasons to complete and they require extensive travel and skilled labor.  As a result biological inventories are conducted for specific research projects or to satisfy particular requirements for environmental assessment or biological conservation acquisition or management.

Species distribution information, when available, tends to hover at the county level, e.g., reports the presence of a species in the county, but not where in the county. For example, see the Catalog of the Woody Plants of Oklahoma.

Where is the site?
Do you know about township, range and section? Familiarize yourself with the Public Land Survey System. Oklahoma uses the township as a location reference on topographic quadrangles, soils maps and property reference.  Your County Extension Service office probably has a free pamphlet on how to use township, range and section.  You can learn about topo maps from topozone or investigate topographic and photo imagery together with Microsoft's terraserver web site. The University of North Texas Libraries has online links to map sources including online topographic views, map searches and sources for ordering U.S. Geological Survey maps.  Buy a paper topographic quadrangle map of your site; unlike your computer, you can take it with you into the field.

What's there?
U.S.D.A. County Soil Survey. Soil association and soil series maps often include descriptions of range or forest types, with a list of characteristic plants. Having mastered township and range, find your location in the soil survey and get a general habitat description using the range type description. Soil surveys may be available in public libraries, the Oklahoma Department of Libraries,  the county Extension Service, or from the offices of the National Resource Conservation Service.

Write or call us with your legal description (township, range and section) and ask for a free report of any rare species occurrences within a 5 mile radius. How to get this information is described elsewhere in this web site.

Cast a wider net if nothing is coming in.  What information is available in the general area, what information is available for similar habitats in this area? What public parks, wildlife management areas, nature preserves may be near by?  Here's an online search for Oklahoma amphibians at Google. Birding hot spots? Try contacting local Audubon chapters.  Wild flowers? How about the Oklahoma Native Plant Society ? Into hard copy? Since the 1970's federally funded or regulated projects have been required to provide environmental assessments or environmental impact documents. Such projects included road construction, reservoir impoundments, national cemeteries and natural gas pipelines. Though they vary greatly in quality, many of these documents contain species lists and habitat descriptions pursuant to their projects. These documents may be found in larger libraries or in the offices of public agencies. Use them, but read carefully.

As you compile your species list, make sure to include scientific names as well as common names.  Scientific names have special meaning for biologists; many scientific names are official and standardized, while common names are not --except for birds. If you want help from experienced biologists or specialists you will need scientific names.

What are you doing here?
If someone owns 'your' site, but it's not you, ... you did get the owner's express permission to visit the site to compile species information, right?

What's next?
-Examine your draft species list, group species by organism type, e.g., butterflies, birds, fish, woody plants;
-With your research in hand, approach a specialist with a selection of species from your master list, including a location map. Indicate your data sources.
-Ask for comments especially for erroneous inclusions or for missing species and for the name of one other person who might know about species at the site.
-When the comments come back, thank your correspondents for their time and revise your list. You've made a good start.

Why are there no Oklahoma plant species on State endangered species lists? 

Oklahoma has yet to pass a rare plant species law, so no official list of state rare plants exists.  The Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory maintains a list of rare Oklahoma plants, (pdf) but this list has no official status.  Oklahoma does have two federally listed plants, the Eastern- and Western Prairie White-Fringed Orchids.



Does Oklahoma have an endangered species act? 

Oklahoma has no state endangered species act; there are no statutory provisions for recovery plans, critical habitat designation, nor inter-agency consultation.  The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation can list threatened or endangered wildlife under provisions of state wildlife laws (Okla. Stat. tit. 29, §5-412, 412.1; 7-206).

Would you send me all available information on the biological diversity of the Ouachita Mountains, the tallgrass prairie, etc. ? 

Please read our definition of biological diversity and then reconsider your original question in terms of what you really need to know.  We will be glad to help you formulate your question.

They want to build a highway through here.  Aren't there any endangered species at this location? 

If you hope that finding an endangered species on the site will delay or stop a project, you may be disappointed.  ONHI responds to about 500 requests for rare species information each year. Most of these requests come from companies and public agencies with projects underway, seeking to comply with environmental regulations, including endangered species. These groups tend to be familiar with the provisions of the federal endangered species act and they are looking to avoid endangered species complications if possible.

There may be valid reasons for objecting to a project, but playing the endangered species card unnecessarily can adversely affect efforts to improve species conservation. This tactic can lend credence to charges that endangered species laws are not used to protect vulnerable species but only to check development.

For a modest fee you can review your site at our online interactive database of Rare and Endangered Species. You can make custom maps of occurrences of federal and state threatened or endangered species for browsing or for download. Please read the disclaimer.

Would you send someone out to look at a site? 

Field biologists at the Oklahoma Biological Survey are full time employees of the University of Oklahoma, serve as faculty or staff and already have commitments to various research projects, which are funded by external grants or contracts.  You can request a site visit by directly contacting one of our biologists or through our department contacts. Please keep the following in mind when making your request:

• A major focus of the Oklahoma Biological Survey is to inventory plants, animals and natural communities of Oklahoma, not to address environmental regulatory issues.
• Clearly explain your problem. Be specific as to why you need an expert on-site and what question you expect the biologist to answer.
• Take time to learn about the professional interests of the experts whose help you hope to get. Browse one of the people pages of our web site and look for contact information and personal pages.
• Be patient. The biologist will be trying to work your visit into his or her existing field schedule; also, depending on what species are involved, inventory may only be possible at certain seasons of the year; in addition, the biologist may want to consult a specialist to identify some species, which could take weeks or even months.

Point of contact for data and information requests at the Oklahoma Biological Survey 

Please direct questions about the availability of data or any other information-related queries to:

Ian Butler (Email: ian_b"@"ou.edu)
Oklahoma Biological Survey
111 East Chesapeake Street
Norman, OK 73019-0575
Telephone: 405.325.1985
Fax: 405.325.7702

If you would like to contact a Survey biologist directly, please see our Personnel page. You can look for staff by program, name or expertise.

This page last modified: April 4, 2002.
Oklahoma Biological Survey
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