The Oklahoma Natural Areas Registry encourages citizen-based conservation of Oklahoma’s natural diversity through a voluntary land preservation program that promotes awareness of rare species, natural communities, and important geologic features.
We will be hosting a Field Day to Copperhead Ridge Natural Area on September 24, 2022.
Copperhead Ridge has been in Larry Andrews’s family since the 1930s when his great aunt ran cattle. Larry has been managing the land for the last 25 years using a combination of traditional grazing, prescribed burning, and plant restoration to improve wildlife habitat and native plant diversity. As a retired fireman, Larry does not shy away from utilizing prescribed fire to control brush and other invasive plants. Also an expert in reptiles and amphibians, Larry knows all these species on his property and breeds alligator snapping turtles for rare species recovery.
Copperhead Ridge Registered Natural Area is a biologically diverse track of 162 acres on the western edge of Pawnee County. The upland features an excellent example of tallgrass prairie with an abundance of native wildflowers and grasses. Crosstimbers cover the slopes down to the Arkansas River floodplain. This habitat is dominated by large chinkapin and blackjack Oaks with a variety of understory trees. Springs and seeps can be found along the hillsides creating microhabitats that are refuge for uncommon native plants. Parcels of bottomland along Red Rock Creek had been cropland, but are currently undergoing restoration to remove invasive plants and to reestablish native bottomland hardwoods.
Registration coming soon!
The Oklahoma Natural Areas Registry is a program of the Oklahoma Biological Survey, a research unit of the University of Oklahoma.
Priscilla H. C. Crawford 