Meetings

All Green Country Group meetings and events are free and open to the public. Our monthly general meeting is held on the fourth Thursday of each month at the Tulsa Garden Center, 2435 S. Peoria Avenue, Tulsa, OK, 74114. The meeting date is subject to rescheduling because of holidays, so please check our Facebook schedule!

6:00 pm - 6:30 pm: Networking

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm: Meeting with presentations/featured speakers

Arkansas River

Water Quality Concerns
E.coli and pollutants in Zink Lake are not compliant with current standards of primary body contact. That means no swimming or wading. Zink Lake is only approved for secondary body contact.

Aware and Prepare
Unless you are paddle boating or kayaking, going out on the water is not safe. Using a well-fitting life jacket is always recommended, even if you are a strong swimmer. Conditions can shift in an instant, and there will be no rescue patrols on the water.

Use the Buddy System
Having an aquatic buddy is always encouraged. If you go out on the water without a companion, be sure to tell someone that you are planning to go out on the water – what time, where you’re going, and when you intend to be back from your excursion.

Hooray for the Fish!
Fish spawning occurs every spring. We hope the City of Tulsa will open the dam during this time to allow fish spawning. How great will it be to watch the fish spawning every year, as a community!? We would love to help usher this event in as citizens of Tulsa. Let’s help make this a reality!

We Love the River
It is well known that access to nature can boost the well-being of citizens of an urban environment. Ensuring the Arkansas River is taken care of and cleaned up is imperative to our community and to the balance of wildlife within the city.

Here are the rules per the City of Tulsa’s website.

Sign up here to get occasional updates about water quality improvements, fish spawning, and other ways you can support our Arkansas River Ecosystem.

Sources:

https://www.owrb.ok.gov/rules/pdf/current/Ch45.pdf

https://mollybullock.substack.com/ 

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/d1473cd55d8d40e48c4b6e00712b156b/page/Zink-Lake-Water-Quality-Home/ 

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/d1473cd55d8d40e48c4b6e00712b156b/page/Resources/

https://www.cityoftulsa.org/zink 

Electric Vehicles are Leading the Future of Oklahoma

Recently the Green Country Sierra Club partnered with Clean Cities-INCOG program to host our first NDEW event. We had a wide array of new EV cars available for test drives and dealer representatives with the cars. We also included many owner-owned EV cars. There is no one more knowledgeable than an experienced electric vehicle owner. The public gathered at Eastside Christian Church parking lot near 15th and Harvard to sit in, drive and have great conversations with the dealers and owners of EV's. Electric vehicles are the transportation of the future including cars, mass transit, buses, school buses and all sizes of trucks up to semi-trailer trucks. Our world is changing for the better!

Oklahoma City and Tulsa regularly have an F rating on the Department of Environmental Quality annual air quality report. Rural areas are much healthier with C and above ratings. We cannot allow our dirty air to continue because it is harming the health of everyone, especially the very young and very old members of our community. We could reduce our carbon pollution in urban areas by 70% if all vehicular travel was electrically operated. When you buy your next vehicle, please check out electric cars and trucks first. No emissions travel is excellent for our community and our people.

The Wind Coalition 

The Wind Coalition, the leading advocacy organization representing the wind energy industry in Oklahoma and throughout America’s Wind Corridor, announced the hiring of Mark Yates as Oklahoma Director. Yates will coordinate advocacy, education and community relations efforts across Oklahoma promoting the positive economic benefits that the wind industry is delivering to Oklahoma ratepayers and communities.

Yates said, “Oklahoma can power Oklahoma and I look forward to working with our community leaders and elected officials to build an Oklahoma that is energy independent. With our infinite wind energy and vast natural gas resources, we can end our dependence on imported fuels and deliver cleaner, cheaper electric power to Oklahoma citizens. Wind energy continues to grow in Oklahoma because it provides opportunity in so many ways. For farmers and ranchers, wind provides an opportunity at reliable income from their land. For communities and schools, wind provides needed funding. For every Oklahoma consumer, wind provides cleaner, cheaper ‘Made in Oklahoma’ energy. The future is bright and I am proud to be a part of it.”  

Our Tour of Kansas, OK and the Industrial Chicken Farms

GCSC members and All Souls Green Team members traveled in a van loaned to us by the All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa. We went on a rainy Saturday to take a tour of the Kansas, OK area out to see and smell some of the new mega Poultry Farms that are crowded around the historic local farms.  We were very fortunate to have the leader of the Green Country Guardians, Pam Kingfisher, as our guide.  The Green Country Guardians are a volunteer activist group working to save their local farms, their local water supply and the clean, non-polluted river waters in Northeast Oklahoma.

We are continuing to fight the state government who keeps granting permits with little review that results in unhealthy conditions for the local people who live and recreate there.

The Future of Water in Oklahoma Is Under Attack

Learn More

Clean Energy Links

Sierra Club: Storytelling Livestream with Leaders committed to Clean Energy

Electric car charging stations for Tulsa 

Sierra Club Mission

To explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of the Earth;
To practice and promote the responsible use of the Earth's ecosystems and resources;
To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment;
And to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.

Oklahoma Chapter

Established in 1972, the Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club has more than 3,500 members in Oklahoma. The Chapter includes three local groups: the Green Country Group (centered in Tulsa), the Cimarron Group (Oklahoma City) and the Red Earth Group (Norman). Through the efforts of numerous dedicated volunteers, the Oklahoma Chapter organizes frequent outdoor activities, social events, conservation activities and educational outreach efforts aimed at furthering the mission of the Sierra Club.

Green Country is part of the Sierra Club's Oklahoma Chapter. We are 1,500 members of the Sierra Club in the 28 counties of eastern Oklahoma. Our mission is to Explore, Enjoy and Protect the planet, through outings, activism, education, social events and volunteer activities. If you have a home address in eastern Oklahoma and join the national Sierra Club, you will automatically become a member of the Green Country Group.