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Friends of the Kaw is a not-for- profit, grassroots, environmental organization

whose mission is to protect and preserve the Kansas River for present and future generations.

Friends of the Kaw is a member of the international water protection organization, Waterkeeper Alliance, and has hired Laura Calwell as the Kansas Riverkeeper to be the eyes, ears and voice for the Kansas River.  Laura is a non-governmental advocate and works in the capacity as a teacher, scientist, investigator and media spokesperson.

Prior to becoming the Kansas Riverkeeper in August of 2003, Laura was a founding board member of Friends of the Kaw and has served 2 terms as secretary and 4 terms as president for the organization.   

Laura presents “The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful – Our Kansas River” to a variety of groups in northeast Kansas.  This power point or slide show documents the beauty of this prairie river focusing on the underused but outstanding recreational opportunity and many of the problems this natural resource faces.

The Neosho Rier begins in central Kansas and when it crosses into Oklahoma, it becomes the Grand River.

website: http://www.kansasriver.org/

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Cynthia Annett, PhD holds a doctorate in zoology from U.C. Berkeley. She has been the Science Advisor for the Kansas Riverkeeper since 2003, and has worked with Friends of the Kaw for more than 15 years. Her responsibilities include researching, writing, and developing online resources for the Kansas River Atlas, the Kids 4 the Kaw, Teens 4 the Kaw, Teachers Corner, Critter Corner, and numerous other sections of the voluminous KansasRiver.org website. She is also the chief scientist on the Kansas River Inventory, the first comprehensive survey of the 171-mile Kansas River. Funding for her work has been provided by two EPA grants, the Kansas Health Foundation, Kingsbury Family Foundation, and other nationally competitive granting agencies and foundations; she works closely with the Kansas Riverkeeper, Laura Calwell, to write and implement educational initiatives for Friends of the Kaw. Dr. Annett has experience as a federal fisheries research biologist, university professor, and environmental educator in both the U.S. and Russia, and has over 25 peer reviewed publications.

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Mr. Hatley is a co-founder of LEAD Agency, Inc., a grassroots group in northeastern Oklahoma, and served as the Board President from 1997-2003.  LEAD’s original focus was the Tar Creek Superfund Site.  The Site is a forty square mile area of abandoned lead and zinc mines impacting the subsistence and cultural resources of the ten tribes located in the area.  LEAD Agency is predominantly of Native American membership.  LEAD Agency is a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance, founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Earl Hatley serves as the Grand Riverkeeper, patrolling the Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees and feeder streams of the upper Grand River watershed.  Mr. Hatley was appointed by Oklahoma’s Governor to serve on the Hazardous Waste Management Advisory Council for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality in March, 2007, representing the state’s environmental community. Since Oct. 1007, Mr. Hatley  serves on the Board of Directors for Oklahoma Sustainability Network, and serves on the Steering Committee for the Western Mining Action Network, including the Indigenous Environment Networks’ tribal caucuse. 

Earl Hatley BTS Presentation

Earl Hatley BTS Presentation

Mr. Hatley also works as an environmental consultant to Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages, as well as indigenous grassroots groups around the country.  Mr. Hatley works with tribal governments to develop environmental programs, water and air quality monitoring projects, write quality control instruments, write grants, conduct culturally based risk assessments, and conduct hazardous waste site investigations.  Mr. Hatley also serves an organizing consultant to national and state-wide non-profit groups, including the Indigenous Environmental Network.  He served as a consultant and co-leader on a $5 M grant as a partner with Harvard School of Public Health and LEAD Agency.  In this capacity he developed the Tribal Subcommittee of the grant’s Community Advisory Board.   

Mr. Hatley served as a Special Consultant to the Community-Tribal Subcommittee for the Board of Scientific Counselors of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and served as a member of the Ad Hoc Tribal Working Group of the Office of Tribal Affairs at ATSDR.   In addition, Mr. Hatley served as an advisor to the Tribal Environmental Coalition in Oklahoma (TECO), a coalition of all 39 federally recognized tribes in the state, and served as a TECO representative on the Oklahoma Water Monitoring Council, organized under the office of the Oklahoma Secretary of the Environment. 

From August 2000 to January 2003, Mr. Hatley served as the Director for the office of  Tribal Environmental Management Services at the University of Tulsa College of Law-NELPI.  TEMS provides technical, legal, and organizing assistance to tribes, tribal consortia, and inter-tribal environmental organizations that represent tribal government.  Activities included; (1) conducting a two year research project, as a contractor, for the Tribal Association on Solid Waste and Emergency Response (TASWER), funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Purpose of the project was to identify abandoned and active industrial sites located on or near tribal lands that may impact human health and the environment, and develop a model for conducting risk assessments that are sensitive to tribal cultural and subsistence practices; (2) assisting tribes with development of air, water, superfund, and solid waste programs or projects; (3) representation of tribes on Superfund activities, including Natural Resource Damage Assessment Actions; (4) environmental program development, including grant writing, project development and development of Quality Control/Quality Assurance instruments; and. (5) writing water quality standards specific for tribal clients.   

Prior to coming to Tulsa University, Mr. Hatley served as the Environmental Program Director for the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma.  As founding Director for that department, he built the program to a staff of five.  The Tar Creek Superfund Site is the key environmental issue for the tribe.  During Mr. Hatley’s tenure, the tribe received the first Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study ever provided to a tribe by the EPA.  In addition the tribe was approved for Program Authority under the Clean Water Act, and began an aggressive water monitoring program of the three streams in the tribe’s jurisdiction (including Tar Creek).  The tribe developed an air program that includes regional stations for PM 10, PM 2.5, and mezonet.  The tribe, also, began an emergency response program. 

He has also served as Regional Organizer for the national non-profit organization National Toxics Campaign (1990-1993), and as Director of the state-wide group Oklahoma Toxics Campaign (1993-1997).  His degrees include, ABD:  Environmental Science Ph.D. Program, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, M.A.:  Political Science, Oklahoma State University,  Stillwater, and B.A.:  Human Development, Flaming Rainbow University/Westminister College, Fulton, MO and Tahlequah, OK.  He is a Mentor in the   Prescott College off-campus degree program and served as Adjunct Faculty at Oklahoma State University-OKC, teaching courses on social ecology and environmental policy.   

Mr. Hatley has extensive research and grant management experience.  His Political Science training included conducting demographic research, developing qualitative survey techniques, and development of quantitative survey instruments.  He has utilized these techniques in the political and environmental science arenas.  Mr. Hatley is Cherokee/Delaware and belongs to the Long Hair Clan of the Cherokee.

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