Habitats in Oregon range from coastal rainforests with giant conifer forests, towering dunes and salt-marshes to 11,000-foot-tall volcanoes. Oregon has the deepest canyon in North America and deserts receiving only seven inches of rain a year. The variation of climate, geology, topology and flora has combined to create exceptional habitat diversity, which exceeds all other U.S. states except California.

Habitat is the place where a plant or animal species naturally lives and grows. A description of habitat includes characteristics of the soil, water, and biologic community (i.e. other plants and animals). They are based on the way different wildlife species see the landscape. Smaller species often see the landscape at different scales than a larger or more mobile creature. A habitat for a sea anemone may be a single tide pool. For a wolf pack it may cover thousands of acres of forests, grasslands and mountains. Also, some species are habitat generalists, occurring in many different types of places. The common yarrow (Achillea millefolium) occurs in coastal headlands, valley prairies, forest meadows, and openings high in the mountains. Others, such as the Larch Mountain salamander have narrow habitat requirements, restricted to low elevation, wooded, talus slopes.