This  department is a source of cutting-edge research, quality instruction, and effective outreach to students, landowners, managers, and public agencies of Oklahoma.

The NREM Department maintains a number of central objectives that allow it to adjust and grow, continuously meeting the needs and demands of the evolving world. 

• Conducting research on the organisms, components, and processes of natural ecosystems and generating knowledge to apply to the management of ecosystems.
• Developing inter-disciplinary, systems approaches to obtain sustainability in natural resources.
• Enhancing existing and develop additional innovative outreach programs that provide citizens with the knowledge and tools to make good decisions on issues of preservation, conservation, sustainable use, and restoration.
• Foster basic scientific knowledge and public appreciation for natural history of indigenous plants and animals in Oklahoma.
• Involve students in outreach activities highlighting conservation and management to provide continuing-education benefits for professionals and lay persons.
• Enhance undergraduate and graduate programs in fisheries, forestry, rangeland, and wildlife ecology and management and develop new curricula in natural resource conservation and natural history.
• Foster broad understanding of resource preservation, conservation, and management through collaboration with related disciplines.