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Happening Now.
Most Recent Blog Posts.
Jonny’s Gifts
When I met Jonny Skye , the Peoria tribal citizen, she allowed LEAD to choose one of her paintings to visually represent this year’s Tar Creek Conference, only to discover the title “It is in the Water” would also serve as our theme. The other paintings needed to be seen and I was pleased when she agreed to allowing us to host an art show for the public. Downtown Miami came to life one night this week at the time most towns close up. LEAD Agency held space open to the public
leadagency
Oct 293 min read
Reflecting on the 27th Tar Creek Conference
Earlier this month, LEAD Agency held our 27th National Environmental Tar Creek Conference on Oct. 7, 8 and 9 at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami.
To kick off this year’s conference, on October 4 we co-hosted an inaugural disc golf tournament, the Tar Creek Open, at the Veterans Memorial Disc Golf Course, located near Tar Creek in what used to be a residential neighborhood before residents were forced to move due to repeated flooding. It’s been our dream for many
Kim Barker
Oct 223 min read
The Project: What’s in the Air in Your House
The investigation of what’s in the air inside homes in Miami, OK in the far NE corner of Oklahoma is based on a discovery made 28 years ago.
A family moved into a home in a nice neighborhood, moving from a state that required childhood blood lead testing, both testing negative. After living in their home only 6 months 2 of the children tested positive. Upon investigating the playroom, the air vent cover was lifted and the HVAC duct had deteriorated and what seemed like gr
Rebecca Jim
Oct 123 min read
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Leaders Standing for Justice
All these years later, we are still waiting for it, for the cleanup you all deserve. The environment waits. The water waits...
Rebecca Jim
Apr 83 min read
Through the Bump Gate
A ”bump gate” is a drive-through gate used in rural areas to provide a barrier to livestock but does not require the driver to exit the...
Rebecca Jim
Jun 11, 20243 min read
Clear Your Throat
Most creeks and rivers in the country have been exploited, used for profit, dammed for recreation or flood control and yet people claim...
Rebecca Jim
May 15, 20243 min read
There at Hell’s Gate
Loren Waters’ film Meet Me at the Creek ᏗᏂᏠᎯ ᎤᏪᏯ world premiered last month. Her film is a story of hope. We attended the Big Sky...
Rebecca Jim
Mar 22, 20243 min read
Hacked to Death
“It is not so much for the Beauty that the forest makes a claim upon man’s hearts, as for that subtle something, quality of the air that...
Rebecca Jim
Jan 16, 20244 min read
Summing up the Summit
EPA’s Region 6 2-Day Environmental Justice Summit was held by zoom and I was invited to present during the first afternoon session. All...
Rebecca Jim
Nov 24, 20233 min read
We Start as Water
No other words would have been appropriate for starting the 25th National Environmental Tar Creek Conference. The words begin the poem by...
Rebecca Jim
Oct 18, 20233 min read
Be There for Tar Creek
For over 25 years children have been creating Tar Creek Fish. What? Yes, on one side was a wounded, perhaps sick or deformed, oddly...
Rebecca Jim
Sep 27, 20233 min read
Work and Play
New friends see this place with new eyes. They pose the questions we no longer ask, having received only silence decades before. I made...
Rebecca Jim
Aug 4, 20233 min read
I Get It
When the rain storm had passed it was time to meet one of this year’s Billy Mills Dreamstarters: Loren Waters. I was to join her and...
Rebecca Jim
Jul 26, 20233 min read
It will Kill You
Sometimes people say, “It will kill you,” and, hey, it doesn’t, won’t, hasn’t, so we tend to downplay the warning. I have been guilty of...
Rebecca Jim
Jul 5, 20233 min read
Another Big Week
I like to say it starts with water. But actually, it started in New Jersey. NEW JERSEY? Yes, the Picher Project was going to be...
Rebecca Jim
May 24, 20233 min read
I deferred
The image in my head is of the me standing up midst and among the rows of Waterkeepers and yelling the words that 20 years ago Earl...
Rebecca Jim
May 4, 20234 min read
Someone Cared
After all these years, the effort has worked. The Miami Police Department got the call, and they turned on their lights and approached...
Rebecca Jim
Apr 25, 20233 min read
Off Duty
Jennifer Little, the gift LEAD Agency got for Christmas arrived early enough to capture the seasons of joy and the stark reality of our...
Rebecca Jim
Dec 11, 20224 min read
A Night Out
Red Dirt and Brownfields was not a place but a time. A Geography professor, a filmmaker, an author, a photographer and an activist met...
Rebecca Jim
Nov 21, 20223 min read
Black and Orange
What right do a group of fellows have to violate the Clean Water Act and dam up a natural flowing stream? No right. It is against the...
Rebecca Jim
Oct 30, 20223 min read
End of an Era
The sky was clear, the wind calm, the sun shine bright. We hadn't a clue the Queen would die just hours later. The morning was still...
Rebecca Jim
Sep 9, 20223 min read
Think WATERSHEDS
We can get our head around the Tar Creek watershed, we know those ephemeral streams who catch up to her and add their flows to her...
Rebecca Jim
Jul 30, 20223 min read
A Sense of Grace
It is a short walk, an historic walk across Harvard Square with the red brick dormitories saved for Freshmen which must each year ground...
Rebecca Jim
May 7, 20223 min read
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