The Oregon Explorer is a purposeful digital library intended to inform natural resource decision-making on important issues facing Oregon.  Topic and basin portals that have been developed around key natural issues include:

• Land Use: Land Use Explorer and Willamette Basin Explorer
• Salmon Recovery: North Coast Explorer and Umpqua Basin Explorer
• Wildfire Risk: Wildfire Risk Explorer
• Wildlife Conservation: Wildlife Explorer and Willamette Basin Explorer
• Watershed Restoration: Umpqua Basin Explorer, North Coast Explorer, and Willamette Basin Explorer

Over time, new topic and basin portals will be developed in response to the need for access to integrated and balanced information around other emerging and important Oregon natural resource issues. Information about all of these issues will be accessible from the Oregon Explorer and related portals in a seamless way.  In the "Issues and Actions" drop-down section of each Explorer site, more stories on particular natural resource issues can be accessed. 

Key natural resource issues identified as priorities by the Institute for Natural Resources Advisory Board (2008) and potential areas for new Oregon Explorer topic and/or basin portals include:

• Ecosystem Services Marketplaces
• Economic Development and Job Opportunities in Natural Resources and Rural Areas
• Setting and Integrating Conservation Priorities
• Climate Change
• Integrated Systems of Monitoring (including interpretation)
• Land Use and Water

Compiled by: Janine Salwasser, Oregon Explorer co-manager, OSU Libraries (2008)