Oklahoma Natural Heritage Program is charged with maintaining an inventory of the state's biological diversity, including rare and endangered species, species of special concern, and significant ecological communities. We also provide information resulting from surveys, studies, and other sources to the people of the state for resource management, research, and education.
Heritage Biologists conduct field inventories to find and evaluate occurrences of rare species and communities throughout the state. Biologists record locations, habitat information, and population data at each occurrence of an element. These data are entered into a database consisting of element, site, and occurrence tables for easy storage and retrieval.
Information about rare species and communities from other sources, including natural resource agencies, conservation groups, published literature, and private individuals is also sought by Heritage Biologists.
Interpretating the meaning and the significance of element occurrence data is rarely straightforward and can be difficult. Hertiage Biologists or the Database Analyst are available to answer questions about the data and its interpretation for any application.
Though Oklahoma public lands account for less than 5% of the state’s total land area, there are many disparate governmental agencies, NGOs, and private land owners tasked with managing these and other protected areas in the state. Beginning in 2012, ONHI began to collate spatial information from these various entities in order to create a new protected areas database for the state. In addition to sharing these data for inclusion in the Protected Areas Database of the U.S. (PAD-US), ONHI provides these data to all interested parties.
The Protected Areas Database of Oklahoma is updated as new data become available. PAD-OK is an aggregated dataset, incorporating data as provided by land owners, administrators, or best available sources. Inconsistencies in data quality and scale may be present. Because of possible data inconsistencies, PAD-OK is best for landscape level analysis (1:100,000 or greater). The user acknowledges that these data may contain nonconformities, defects, and errors. Additionally, all protected area boundaries are approximations and should not be viewed as legal boundaries for regulation or acquisition purposes. The Protected Areas of Oklahoma database is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind.
ONHI, in collaboration with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC), the Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership (MoRAP), the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative, and the Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative, helped produce a new land cover dataset for the state. Based on NatureServe's Terrestrial Ecological Systems of the United States, the land cover raster dataset and associated interpretive booklet are available from ODWC (links below).
ODWC Ecological Systems Mapping Site
Raster Dataset (ODWC Website)
Interpretive Booklet (ODWC Website) (pdf)
The Oklahoma Gap Analysis project (OK-GAP) was initiated in 1993 as a cooperative effort between the US Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, and other federal, state, and private natural resource interests in Oklahoma. The objectives of the project were to: (1) prepare a map of the current distribution of land cover types, (2) estimate terrestrial vertebrate species distributions relative to land cover types, (3) classify land stewardship by categories of conservation status, and (4) identify and analyze gaps in the conservation of biological diversity from representative areas. The OK-GAP was an initial step toward a more detailed and comprehensive effort at long-term planning for biodiversity conservation in Oklahoma. To request a copy of the data, please contact us.
Ecoregions denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems and in the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. They are designed to serve as a spatial framework for the research, assessment, management, and monitoring of ecosystems and ecosystem components. By recognizing the spatial differences in the capacities and potentials of ecosystems, ecoregions stratify the environment by its probable response to disturbance (Bryce, Omernik, and Larsen, 1999).
Go to map and shapefile downloads.
The Game Types of Oklahoma and A Game Type Map of Oklahoma, prepared by L.G. Duck and Jack B. Fletcher, were early efforts to describe and map the natural vegetation of Oklahoma. The continued use of A Game Type Map of Oklahoma as a potential natural vegetation map by educators and state agencies marks the success of their efforts. By providing descriptions of the Oklahoma landscape immediately following the "dust bowl" era of the 1930's, these works are of historical interest. Information provided in The Game Types of Oklahoma was not restricted to vegetation and game animals. Duck and Fletcher included information regarding land use characteristics, agricultural practices, and demographics.
Go to ArcGIS site for Shapefiles
Global and State Rarity Ranking
Species and natural communities occurring in Oklahoma receive two ranks: a global (G) rank reflecting its rarity throughout the world (assigned by NatureServe) and a state (S) rank reflecting its rarity within Oklahoma (assigned by ONHI biologists). Taken together, these ranks serve as an index of biological status, but the ranks are subject to change with new information. Natural Heritage rarity rankings have no regulatory stature: they are intended for information only.
| Rank | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| G1 S1 | Critically imperiled: At very high risk of extinction due to extreme rarity (often 5 or fewer populations), very steep declines, or other factors such as very steep declines, making it especially vulnerable to extirpation from the state. | |
| G2 S2 | Imperiled: At high risk of extinction due to very restricted range, very few populations (often 20 or fewer), steep declines, or other factors making it especially vulnerable to extirpation from the state. | |
| G3 S3 | Vulnerable: At moderate risk of extinction due to a restricted range, relatively few populations (often 80 or fewer), recent and widespread declines, or other factors making it vulnerable to extirpation. | |
| G4 S4 | Apparently secure: Uncommon but not rare; some cause for long-term concern due to declines or other factors. | |
| G5 S5 | Secure: Common; widespread and abundant. | |
| GH SH | Possibly extinct or extirpated (species): Missing; known from only historical occurrences but still some hope of rediscovery. Presumed eliminated: (Historical, ecological communities)-Presumed eliminated throughout its range, with no or virtually no likelihood that it will be rediscovered, but with the potential for restoration, for example, American Chestnut (Forest). Its presence may not have been verified in the past 20-40 years. A species or community could become SH without such a 20-40 year delay if the only known occurrences in the state were destroyed or if it had been extensively and unsuccessfully looked for. The SH rank is reserved for species or communities for which some effort has been made to relocate occurrences, rather than simply using this status for all elements not known from verified extant occurrences. | |
GX SX | Presumed extinct (species): Not located despite intensive searches and virtually no likelihood of rediscovery. Eliminated (ecological communities): Eliminated throughout its range, with no restoration potential due to extinction of dominant or characteristic species. |
Additional information can be found at NatureServe.
The Game Types of Oklahoma and A Game Type Map of Oklahoma, prepared by L. G. Duck and Jack B. Fletcher, was an early effort to describe and map the natural vegetation of the state. The continued use of A Game Type Map of Oklahoma as a potential natural vegetation map demonstrates the high quailty of their work. By providing descriptions of the Oklahoma landscape immediately following the "dust bowl" era of the 1930's, these works are of historical interest. Information provided in The Game Types of Oklahoma is not restricted to vegetation and game animals. Duck and Fletcher included details regarding land use characteristics, agricultural practices and demographics.
Citation for this Web Document:
Duck, L. G., and J. B. Fletcher. 1945. A survey of the game and furbearing animals of Oklahoma; Chapter 2, The Game Types of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Game and Fish Commission, Division of Wildlife Restoration and Research. Oklahoma City.
The Game Types of Oklahoma and A Game Type Map of Oklahoma, prepared by L. G. Duck and Jack B. Fletcher, was an early effort to describe and map the natural vegetation of the state (see also Bruner 1931, Blair and Hubbell 1938). The continued use of A Game Type Map of Oklahoma as a potential natural vegetation map by educators and state agencies marks the success of their effort. By providing descriptions of the Oklahoma landscape immediately following the "dust bowl" era of the 1930's, these works are of historical interest. Information provided in The Game Types of Oklahoma was not restricted to vegetation and game animals. Duck and Fletcher included information regarding land use characteristics, agricultural practices and demographics.
Originally, the two documents were published separately. The Game Types of Oklahoma appeared in a longer report, A Survey of Game and Furbearing Animals in Oklahoma (1943), published by the Oklahoma Game and Fish Commission's (now the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation) Division of Wildlife Restoration and Research. The vegetation descriptions provided in The Game Types of Oklahoma elaborate the A Game Map of Oklahoma map units. These works of Duck and Fletcher are brought together on this Worldwide Web Site for two reasons; (1) access: existing copies of The Game Types of Oklahoma are difficult to acquire (copies of the report can be found at only a few libraries in Oklahoma) and (2) to acquaint a broader audience with Duck and Fletcher and the vegetation of Oklahoma.
In preparing this document, I minimized editorial changes to preserve the authors' voice. I updated plant synonymy and provided scientific binomials for all plants originally listed only by common name. The following references used were: Waterfall 1979, Taylor and Taylor 1991, Kartesz 1994. Additional information on the vegetation of Oklahoma can be found in Johnson and Milby 1989 and Hoagland 2000.
Bruce W. Hoagland
Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory
bhoagland@ou.edu
Literature Cited:
Blair, W. F., and T. H. Hubbell. 1938. The biotic districts of Oklahoma. American Midland Naturalist 20: 425-454.
Bruner, W. E. 1931. The vegetation of Oklahoma. Ecological Monographs 1: 100-188.
Hoagland, B.W. 2000. The vegetation of Oklahoma: a classification of landscape mapping and conservation planning. Southwestern Naturalist 45: 385-420.
Johnson, F. L. and T. H. Milby. 1989. Oklahoma botanical literature. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, USA.
Kartesz, J. T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland, volume 1 - checklist. Timber Press. Portland, Oregon.
Taylor, J. R. And C. E. S. Taylor. 1991. An annotated list of the ferns, fern allies, gymnosperms, and flowering plants of Oklahoma. Biology Department Herbarium. Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant.
Waterfall, U. T. 1979. Keys to the flora of Oklahoma. Oklahoma State University. Stillwater.
Acknowledgements: I express my appreciation to Pam Pogorelc for typing and secreterial assistance and to Dr. Forrest Johnson for technical assistance.
Due to the wide diversification in game habitat in Oklahoma, an understanding of the character and extent of these conditions today is essential to those who expect to successfully manipulate game populations to the best interest of the people. Oklahoma is so situated within the nation as to enclose that portion of the continent where the eastern forests merge with the prairies and plains of the west. This is reflected in the presence of game species typical of both the eastern forests and the western grasslands within the confines of the state.
A review of the existing studies of the biological and physical land features showed that any one study within itself was not adaptable to practical game management problems. A map of more detail, as well as one with more varied emphasis was needed. So included within the survey outlines were facilities for mapping the game habitat of Oklahoma.
The map presented with this book is a result of actual field mapping correlated with prior studies concerning vegetation, geology, soils, climate, and land use in relation to game populations, and is, we believe, in sufficient detail for wide application in future game studies. Game habitat conditions in this work have been classified under three general headings. A total of twelve types have been defined of which five are forested, four are shrub grassland, and three are agricultural grassland types (Table 1).
It will be noticed throughout this report that particular topics are dealt with at some length under certain types and but briefly mentioned in others. Generally this results from the workers not being able to obtain information of equal detail for all type conditions. Rather than omit a discussion of importance simply because it was not available throughout, we have included such information here without regard to strict outline in hopes that it may be available at a later date.
The Game Type Map presented with this report is a generalized one, being scaled down from field copies which are one-half inch to the mile and in considerable detail.
Use of the Map
Post Oak - Blackjack
Oak - Hickory Forest
Bottomland Timber
Oak - Pine Forest
Loblolly Pine - Hardwood
Tallgrass Prairie
Mixed - Grass - Eroded Plains
Stabilized-dune
Shinnery - Grassland
Sandsage-grassland
Shortgrass - High Plains
Piñón - Juniper - Mesa
Literature Cited
We are working on an updated web version of the original manuscript. You can access the text and low resolution plates on our legacy website.
