Are you loving this autumn weather preview as much as us?! Check out this calendar and see details below:

August 28th - August Meeting Recap  
September 3rd - Upcoming Crow Creek Meadow Work Day 
September 11th - Let's Talk Sustainability 
September 12th-14th - Camp at Monarch Day in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area 
September 15th - Let's Talk Sustainability 
September 18th - prep for Monarchs on the Mountain 
September 20th - Monarchs on the Mountain! 
September 21st - Sun Day 
September 23rd - Let's Talk Sustainability 
September 25th - Green Country General Meeting with Sarah Cross of Across the Prairie about fall planting for pollinators 
October 3rd-5th - Oklahoma Native Plant Society Annual Meeting 
October 10th - Work Day  

September 23rd - Let's Talk Sustainability

The Tulsa Mayor's Task Force on Sustainability and the Environment needs your input!
Three more Let's Talk Sustainability events are being held in September and this is our chance to give more input on what priorities the city tackles first. Please plan to attend on September, 11th, 15th, and/or 23rd. See the flier for more details and fill out this survey as soon as you are able.

August Meeting Recap

Big thanks to Cheryl Cheadle and all who attended her Green Country Sierra Club talk about Yard by Yard, Blue Thumb Citizen Science, and Conservation! It was amazing to see her demonstrations of just how much difference there is between water taking more than an hour to absorb into a regularly mowed monoculture lawn vs the seconds it sinks into an urban prairie. We'll be talking about that more in the months to come!
 

Crow Creek Meadow Work Day

To start us off in that direction, we're inviting all of you to join us for the Crow Creek Meadow Work Day on Wednesday, September 3rd from 3:00pm - 7:00pm. This is a come and go event where you can take a tour of this precious urban meadow and learn more about the Green Country watersheds. If you are able, we hope you will bring some garden tools, knee pad, and drinking water to stick around to hang out with fun people, learn about gardening, and perform a community service. For more information see the flier. If you can't make it this week, stay tuned for future opportunities!

We're going camping with Monarchs!

Sign up today to join our Camp at Monarch Day in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. 
We have a campsite for September 12th-14th and on Saturday, Sept. 13 we'll have the chance to attend the Chickasaw Cultural Center Monarch Butterfly Day, a family-friendly day of fun and opportunities to learn more about a vulnerable and important species, the monarch butterfly. For more info about Monarch Day visit their site here. And follow this link to sign up to camp with us!

Monarchs on the Mountain!

We'll be tabling at the 10th Annual Monarchs on the Mountain Migration Celebration and we hope to see you there! Are you willing to take a shift at our Green Country table? Please follow this link to sign up to join us for this always informative and fun filled event!

Get ready for Sun Day!
September 21

Sun Day is a national day of celebration and action for clean energy—especially solar and wind power—taking place on September 21, 2025. Communities across the U.S., including in Oklahoma, will unite to highlight progress in clean energy and push for a sustainable, affordable, and resilient energy future. Join the movement on September 21 to support clean energy, protect health and the environment, and shape Oklahoma’s energy future. We'll be at Stonecloud Brewing Company in OKC and at Bowman Twin Event Center in Tulsa. Get the latest details here. We hope to see you there!

Save the dates

September 25th - Green Country General Meeting with speakers and activities to be announced soon!
October 3rd-5th - Oklahoma Native Plant Society annual weekend

As always, your contribution is essential and we are grateful to be in community with all of you!

 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.

Sierra Club: Storytelling Livestream with Leaders committed to Clean Energy

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.