About

The Oregon Biodiversity Information Center's (ORBIC) primary mission is to track the distribution and status of as much of Oregon's flora and fauna as possible. For species considered to be at-risk in Oregon, we manage location and population data for all observations and occurrences in the state.

For each taxon that makes up Oregon's biodiversity, we work to answer three questions: What is it? Where is it? How is it doing?

We were formed in large part to aid in the conservation of Oregon's rare species and ecosystems. The rich diversity of ecosystems and native plants and animals is one of Oregon's most distinctive and valued qualities. Oregon has rain forests, dry Ponderosa pine forests, oak woodlands, alpine meadows, prairies, deserts, marshes, estuaries, dunes, rocky headlands, lakes and streams, and an abundance of plants, animals, fungi, algae, and other species that inhabit them.

ORBIC is Oregon's local member of the NatureServe Network of Natural Heritage Programs, utilizing their rigorous core standards and methodologies to assess status, risk, and condition of the state's biodiversity. Standardized methods allow sharing of conservation information across jurisdictional boundaries.

ORBIC helps preserve these species and habitats in Oregon by cataloging rare species locations, ranking species by their rarity and risk of extirpation, mapping ecosystem types and habitats, creating species distribution models, monitoring snowy plovers on the Oregon coast, allocating Section 6 funds to endangered invertebrate projects, and participating in a variety of local and regional projects with a wide range of agencies, organizations, and partnerships.

You can learn more about the species on our rare species list and contribute your own observations to assist in conservation efforts on our Rare, Threatened and Endangered Species of Oregon iNaturalist Project. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife also has an Oregon Wildlife Conservation iNaturalist Project focusing on Oregon Conservation Strategy Species and other Oregon wildlife.

One of the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center's main tasks is to list and rank rare, threatened, and endangered (RTE) species in Oregon. Using our Biotics biodiversity database of species occurrences throughout the state and by consulting with agencies, specialists, academics, and the public, ORBIC reviews and publishes this list every two to three years. Recent publications are archived in the Institute for Natural Resources PDX Scholar collection.

Species ranks are important for natural resource management, prioritization of restoration or conservation efforts, and to highlight species that need more research or protection. The ranks that ORBIC produces are shared internationally through the NatureServe network of natural heritage programs and conservation data centers.

We've been known by a few names over the years: starting in 1974 as a conservation data program with The Nature Conservancy, then established by the Oregon Legislature as the Oregon Natural Heritage Program in the Natural Heritage Act of 1979 (ORS 273.561-.591 [SB 448]), we later became the Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center and now the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center, to reflect our wider set of programs and research. We became part of the Institute for Natural Resources when it was established in 2001 under ORS 352.808.

ORBIC is Oregon's local member of the NatureServe Network of Natural Heritage Programs, utilizing their rigorous core standards and methodologies to assess status, risk, and condition of the state's biodiversity. We also work closely with local, state, and federal partners.

Please contact Jesse Laney for animal inquiries, Nora Dunkirk for plants and fungi inquiries, or Eleanor Gaines for general inquiries.