Previously known as the Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center, the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center is located at Portland State University. It is a program of the Institute for Natural Resources - Portland, an affiliate of the multi-institution Institute for Natural Resources based at Oregon State University in Corvallis. INR - Portland is part of the School of the Environment at PSU.

If you were redirected here from www.oregonstate.edu/ornhic, please note our new Web address, orbic.pdx.edu.

Our new contact information at PSU is found at the bottom left of this page, as well as at our Staff and Contacts page.

** Rare, Threatened and Endangered Plant and Fungi Review **

Publication of the updated RTE book is estimated to be completed in summer 2013. Until then, you can download a summary of the changes here:

Vascular plant changes: 2013-vasc-rank-changes.xls

Non-vascular plant, lichen, and fungi changes: 2013-nonvasc-changes.xls

Back ground information: In preparation for the 2013 update to “Rare, Threatened and Endangered Species of Oregon” a meeting was held Oct. 23, 2012 at OSU to discuss recommendations for any changes to the species list and/or the information included. If you were unable to attend but have changes to recommend, please send them to Sue Vrilakas ( sue.vrilakas@pdx.edu ).

Plant species recommendations with notes from the October meeting are available from the spreadsheet plantrecs2012.xlsx (updated 11/05/2012). We will continue to add recommendations as they come in and this spreadsheet will be updated with those changes.

Proposed animal changes: 2012animalchanges.xlsx (33 KB)
The proposed changes in this spreadsheet will be discussed at the Joint Oregon/Washington Rare Animal Species meeting on February 12, 1pm at Skamania Lodge. If you have additional suggested changes, email them to Eleanor Gaines (eleanor.gaines@pdx.edu) or bring them to the meeting. For a full list of animals tracked, see the above links.

More information can be found at our Rare Species page.

You may also want to review our most recent species ranking documents.

News and Current Projects

Can't find what you're looking for?

We have moved our pages describing Historical Vegetation of Oregon as noted in General Land Office Survey notes to the website of INR's Pacific Northwest Landscape Assessment and Mapping Program. The GLO pages are listed under the Vegetation Mapping menu on the page header. Information on the GAP project is also found here. All future mapping products will be posted to the PNW-LAMP site.

Oregon iMapInvasives Launched

iMapInvasives is an online, GIS-based invasive species reporting and querying tool developed through a partnership between The Nature Conservancy, NatureServe, the New York Natural Heritage Program, and Florida Natural Areas Inventory, with many other collaborators.

ORBIC worked with the Oregon Invasive Species Council, The Nature Conservancy of Oregon, many Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and other partners to launch the site. The public map allows casual users to generate distribution maps by county or watershed for tracked invasive species in Oregon. iMap account holders can view point observation data and submit invasive species observations online.

View the Oregon iMap Invasives public map or learn more by viewing our invasive species page.

2012 Western Snowy Plover Report Available

Read about ORBIC's work with state and federal agencies to monitor and restore threatened Western Snowy Plover populations along the Oregon coast. Download report (PDF; 6.8 Mb).

Online Newsletter for the Institute of Natural Resources