Harvey Payne has served as the Director of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma since 1990. In those ten years he has worked to maintain protection of the 40,000 acre Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, a remnant of the once vast tallgrass prairie ecosystem.

Payne graduated from the University of Tulsa College of Law with a Juris Doctorate Degree in 1972. In addition to his work at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Payne maintains a private law practice in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, where he has practiced for more than 27 years. In 1991, he was awarded the Chevron Conservation Award for his work at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, and in 1986 the Oklahoma Wildlife Federation recognized his contributions with the At Large Conservation Award.

Payne is also an accomplished nature and wildlife photographer, with hundreds of photographs circulated in publications nationwide. His photographs illustrate The Nature Conservancy's book "Big Bluestem: Journey Into The Tall Grass", and more than 100 prairie photographs are on permanent display at a Smithsonian exhibit on prairies at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Payne lives on his own farm and ranch near Pawhuska and has two adult children.