TULSA, Okla. — The Environmental Protection Agency has partnered with the Oklahoma Conservation Commission to implement a non point source pollution program for many years as an effort to improve water quality in the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma leads the nation in the number of impaired waterways removed from the 303d polluted waterway list.
In 2017, The Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts and the Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project created the C.A.R.E program (Conservation Agriculture Reach Everyone).
The EPA will be visiting the Tulsa area on May 31st and June 1st to experience first hand how the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts C.A.R.E program has built environmental stewardship throughout the state of Oklahoma. EPA Regional Administrator, Dr. Earthea Nance, will be part of the tour. She is an environmental engineer who has worked for the last two decades with communities at disproportionate risk of environmental hazards and without adequate environmental infrastructure.
The purpose of the C.A.R.E. program is to increase the number of farmers and ranchers participating in conservation planning and programs in order to improve soil health, water quality and the viability of working lands.
The C.A.R.E project places an emphasis on assisting socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers and ranchers. The project has built the capacity of participating organizations to develop and implement conservation projects and strengthened the technical capacity of conservation districts to assist in both conservation planning and Farm Bill conservation programs.
All partners will visit farms and ranches in and around the Tulsa area to include Resilient Growers Farm, Better Day Farms, the ranch of C.A.R.E champion, Major TJ Love as well as water quality monitoring sites. In addition, all will be visiting Greenwood Rising.
EPA, OCC, OACD and The Oklahoma Historical Black Research project are deeply committed to the partnership that increases equity in agriculture through conservation.
The C.A.R.E program is unique to Oklahoma and we hope to inspire additional states throughout the country to implement similar conservation practices.
To learn more on the program, please visit us @ https://www.okconservation.
–Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts