Tulsa Residents and Visitors Enjoy Wildlife Artwork

By Oklahoma Dept of Wildlife Conservation

First posted on 08-04-2009

Tulsa residents and visitors commonly come across elk, whitetail deer, and even mountain lions right in the middle of town thanks to one organization that is using art to not only decorate the city with lifelike wildlife statues, but also to support conservation.

NatureWorks is a Tulsa-based conservation organization that has been supporting wildlife and sportsmen for years by providing money for habitat projects and programs such as the Wildlife Department’s Hunters Against Hunger program. But the all-volunteer group is also responsible for numerous bronze wildlife statues that decorate parts of the City of Tulsa.

NatureWorks is the outgrowth of the Ducks Unlimited Wildlife Art Show that started 30 years ago in downtown Tulsa. Today, NatureWorks hosts the annual art show that draws both national and international wildlife artists to display their work. The art show and sale also generates funds that NatureWorks uses to support conservation projects.

“NatureWorks annual Art Show and Sale produces proceeds that enable NatureWorks to fund nearly 100,000 in wildlife conservation projects annually,” said John Cowen, monuments chairman for NatureWorks.

Sticking to its appreciation of wildlife and art, for the last decade NatureWorks has been donating the bronze wildlife monuments, which depict various species of wildlife native to Oklahoma and other parts of the country, to the city of Tulsa.

Pictures of the beautiful bronze monuments could never do them justice, as their size is normally described as “heroic.” While many of these statues are larger than life depictions, they fit perfectly into the Tulsa metro area.

“NatureWorks has given 19 larger than life bronze monuments to the Tulsa community since 1994,” Cowen said. “Many of the monuments can be seen along the Arkansas river on Riverside Drive. The monuments are selected over a year in advance of their placement and monuments numbers 20 and 21 are already in the works.”

The first bronze monument was erected in 1994 near the Gilcrease Museum in honor of Harold C. Stuart for his lifelong commitment to conservation. Since then a total of 18 bronze monuments have been presented in the Tulsa metro area recognizing various individuals and groups for their enthusiastic commitment to wildlife conservation.

Along with providing wildlife statues for viewing pleasure, NatureWorks also helped fund Wildlife Department projects such as the wetlands project at Keystone Lake, the Grand River Paddlefish study, habitat improvement on the Oologah Wildlife Management Area, and many other Department projects across the state. Additionally, NatureWorks provided a grant in 2009 that puts the Wildlife Department’s Outdoor Oklahoma magazine in every public school and library in the state, furthering outdoor education and putting wildlife information in the hands of future stewards of the outdoors.

With the warm weather and a few weeks of summer break still remaining, now is an excellent time to take the family to Tulsa and check out some of these monuments that provide a life like representation of wildlife. For location information, log on to http://www.natureworks.org and check out the monuments link at the top of the page. In addition to providing locations of monuments, it also offers a cool online brochure with info on each of the monuments and NatureWorks.

For more information about NatureWorks, log on to http://www.natureworks.org.