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The Nature Conservancy in Africa - Conservation in Africa

The Nature Conservancy in Asia Pacific - Conservation in Asia-Pacific

The Nature Conservancy in the Caribbean - Conservation in the Caribbean

The Nature Conservancy in Central America - Conservation in Central America

The Nature Conservancy in North America - Conservation in North America

The Nature Conservancy in the United States - Conservation in the United States

The Nature Conservancy in South America - Conservation in South America

Partners In Conservation


The Oklahoma Chapter of The Nature Conservancy enjoys the support of corporations, foundations and individuals across the state. Their generous gifts help us protect The Last Great Places on Earth in our uniquely beautiful and diverse state.

Kirkpatrick Family Fund


Oklahoma's Blue River The Kirkpatrick Family Fund has generously awarded the Oklahoma chapter two grants totaling $95,000 this year.

The first will support our new Blue River Project. The Blue River is the only river in Oklahoma that is still entirely free-flowing, meaning that it flows to the ocean without being impeded by man-made reservoirs. Conservation of this site will focus on the crosstimber and prairie plant communities present on the Arbuckle Plains, which are significant in themselves, but also play an intimate role in the water quality of the aquifer that supplies much of the water entering the Blue River.

Oklahoma's Four Canyon Preserve The Kirkpatrick Family Fund's second grant is for Four Canyon Preserve in Ellis County. When we purchased Four Canyon in May of 2004, we had some funds available for the acquisition but had to take out a loan to complete the purchase. Western Oklahoma is quickly becoming very fragmented due to smaller parcels of land being sold to private buyers for hunting ground, and in order to truly work at a landscape scale, we need large, intact parcels of land. In addition, land values in the area are rising very quickly, so it was critical for us to purchase the former ranch when it went on the market. The Kirkpatrick Family Fund's generous gift helps us begin to repay the loan we needed to create Four Canyon preserve.

PSO Science Fund


The PSO Science Fund was recently created with a gift of $50,000 from Public Service Company of Oklahoma.

These funds are being used to gather baseline biological data at TNC preserves across the state, data that will be used to plan, implement and monitor conservation work at these locations. This information will be shared with universities, state and federal resource agencies and private landowners. Educational lesson plans will be created from the information gathered in each research project. These plans will then be distributed to interested educators by PSO.


Mervin Bovaird Foundation



Nickel Preserve elk The Mervin Bovaird Foundation has generously awarded a grant of $30,000 to support the elk reintroduction project at the J.T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve.

This gift has allowed the project to move forward on schedule and the first elk will arrive at the preserve in early March. North American elk were once common throughout the Ozarks and their presence would likely have contributed to high species diversity and landscape diversity. The loss of this species has been identified as a source of stress to this ecosystem that evolved and developed over millennia in their presence. The elk reintroduction to the Nickel Preserve will be the first such project on a Conservancy preserve anywhere in the United States. Additional funding for this project is needed.


Photo credits | Top to Bottom - Jay Pruett, Jay Pruett, George Pierson, George Pierson