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.

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.

Our site menu has also been reorganized. If you expand all menu items (click on the 'plus' signs) you can see all available pages. The Site Index also lists the pages available. If you can't find the page you're looking for, have feedback on menu organization, or run into errors on the site, please contact the webmaster.

News and Current Projects

Oregon iMap Invasives Launched

iMap Invasives 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.

2010 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; 3.3 Mb).

2010 Natural Areas Plan published

ORBIC and the Natural Heritage Advisory Council have published the 2010 Natural Areas Plan (PDF, 6.6 MB) for Oregon (previously the Natural Heritage Plan) detailing the distribution and status of Oregon's natural resources, including ecological systems, geological formations, and rare species.

The publication is available as a PDF from the link above, and available for print from Odin Ink at the PSU bookstore. See our Natural Areas Plan page for more information.

2010 Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Species of Oregon
Complete book now available!

The October 2010 version of the Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Species of Oregon has been published.

Printed copies can be ordered through Odin Ink at the PSU bookstore. Please see our RTE Species page for more information on ordering, or to download sections of the book in PDF or Excel format.

Updated Element Ranking Forms Posted

ORBIC has been working with the BLM and USFS to create global and state ranking forms for select species. Go to our RTE Rank Documentation page to read our rationale behind ranks for species such as Oregon daisy (Erigeron oreganus), giant polypore fungus (Bridgeoporus nobilissimus), western bumble bee (Bombus occidentalis), and tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata).

Online Newsletter for the Institute of Natural Resources