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Tulsa District, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is hosting an online review to provide information and receive public input to begin the process of revising the Master Plan for Council Grove, El Dorado, Elk City, & Marion Reservoirs. Normally, USACE would conduct a face-to-face public workshop to announce the start of the revision and to request comments from the public. However, precautions associated with the COVID-19 virus have made it necessary to conduct the public involvement process online instead of hosting a face-to-face workshop. Please watch the following video presentations or download the PDF copy to read the presentation. The PDF copy and video presentation provide the same information.
6/22/2020
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The Tulsa District executed training for summer rangers and new hires preparing to work at the lake offices throughout Southwestern Division.
6/19/2020
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Col. Scott S. Preston, Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Commander stands with Vistor Assistance Citation Authority Program graduates after giving them their certificates, June 19. The VACAP course provides new hire park rangers and summer rangers with skills to enforce Title 36 recreation projects.
6/19/2020
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Contractors, Hospital Administrators and USACE Tulsa District personnel stand for a group photo May 6, 2020. While working on a FEMA mission assignment at the request of the state of Oklahoma, the Tulsa District executed planning, assessment, design and construction missions supporting state requests for two alternate care facilities. Four floors of the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa Okla., were remodeled providing an additional 116 beds and Integris Baptist Portland Campus in Oklahoma City Okla., providing an additional 110 beds. USACE has the capability and expertise to adjust alternate care facility designs between COVID and non-COVID, depending on states’ needs for specific site locations. The estimated 14 day construction process began at both facilities on April 27, 2020. (Released/U.S. Army Photo by Preston L. Chasteen)
6/11/2020
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Tulsa District Technical Lead Chris Strunk, left, ensures operability of negative pressure gauges with Tulsa District Program Manager Patrick Beard, during construction efforts of an alternate care facility at Oklahoma State University Medical Center, Tulsa Okla., May 6, 2020. While working on a FEMA mission assignment at the request of the state of Oklahoma, the Tulsa District executed planning, assessment, design and construction missions supporting state requests for two alternate care facilities. Four floors of the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa Okla., were remodeled providing an additional 116 beds and Integris Baptist Portland Campus in Oklahoma City Okla., providing an additional 110 beds. USACE has the capability and expertise to adjust alternate care facility designs between COVID and non-COVID, depending on states’ needs for specific site locations. The estimated 14 day construction process began at both facilities on April 27, 2020. (Released/U.S. Army Photo by Preston L. Chasteen)
6/10/2020
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Oklahoma State University Medical Center Administrator Matt Adams, left, discusses construction progress with Tulsa District Program Manager Patrick Beard, during an alternate care facility build out at Oklahoma State University Medical Center, Tulsa Okla., May 6, 2020. While working on a FEMA mission assignment at the request of the state of Oklahoma, the Tulsa District executed planning, assessment, design and construction missions supporting state requests for two alternate care facilities. Four floors of the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa Okla., were remodeled providing an additional 116 beds and Integris Baptist Portland Campus in Oklahoma City Okla., providing an additional 110 beds. USACE has the capability and expertise to adjust alternate care facility designs between COVID and non-COVID, depending on states’ needs for specific site locations. The estimated 14 day construction process began at both facilities on April 27, 2020. (Released/U.S. Army Photo by Preston L. Chasteen)
6/10/2020
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A contractor works to finish drywall during construction efforts of an alternate care facility at Oklahoma State University Medical Center, Tulsa Okla., May 6, 2020. While working on a FEMA mission assignment at the request of the state of Oklahoma, the Tulsa District executed planning, assessment, design and construction missions supporting state requests for two alternate care facilities. Four floors of the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa Okla., were remodeled providing an additional 116 beds and Integris Baptist Portland Campus in Oklahoma City Okla., providing an additional 110 beds. USACE has the capability and expertise to adjust alternate care facility designs between COVID and non-COVID, depending on states’ needs for specific site locations. The estimated 14 day construction process began at both facilities on April 27, 2020. (Released/U.S. Army Photo by Preston L. Chasteen)
6/10/2020
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Contractors continually clean and mop the job site during construction efforts of an alternate care facility at Oklahoma State University Medical Center, Tulsa Okla., May 6, 2020. While working on a FEMA mission assignment at the request of the state of Oklahoma, the Tulsa District executed planning, assessment, design and construction missions supporting state requests for two alternate care facilities. Four floors of the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa Okla., were remodeled providing an additional 116 beds and Integris Baptist Portland Campus in Oklahoma City Okla., providing an additional 110 beds. USACE has the capability and expertise to adjust alternate care facility designs between COVID and non-COVID, depending on states’ needs for specific site locations. The estimated 14 day construction process began at both facilities on April 27, 2020. (Released/U.S. Army Photo by Preston L. Chasteen)
6/10/2020
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Signs reminding contractors and visitors are posted all throughout the facility during construction efforts of an alternate care facility at Oklahoma State University Medical Center, Tulsa Okla., May 6, 2020. While working on a FEMA mission assignment at the request of the state of Oklahoma, the Tulsa District executed planning, assessment, design and construction missions supporting state requests for two alternate care facilities. Four floors of the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa Okla., were remodeled providing an additional 116 beds and Integris Baptist Portland Campus in Oklahoma City Okla., providing an additional 110 beds. USACE has the capability and expertise to adjust alternate care facility designs between COVID and non-COVID, depending on states’ needs for specific site locations. The estimated 14 day construction process began at both facilities on April 27, 2020. (Released/U.S. Army Photo by Preston L. Chasteen)
6/10/2020
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Contractors work on the ceiling structure during construction efforts of an alternate care facility at Oklahoma State University Medical Center, Tulsa Okla., May 6, 2020. While working on a FEMA mission assignment at the request of the state of Oklahoma, the Tulsa District executed planning, assessment, design and construction missions supporting state requests for two alternate care facilities. Four floors of the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa Okla., were remodeled providing an additional 116 beds and Integris Baptist Portland Campus in Oklahoma City Okla., providing an additional 110 beds. USACE has the capability and expertise to adjust alternate care facility designs between COVID and non-COVID, depending on states’ needs for specific site locations. The estimated 14 day construction process began at both facilities on April 27, 2020. (Released/U.S. Army Photo by Preston L. Chasteen)
6/10/2020
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Contractors work on the ceiling structure during construction efforts of an alternate care facility at Oklahoma State University Medical Center, Tulsa Okla., May 6, 2020. While working on a FEMA mission assignment at the request of the state of Oklahoma, the Tulsa District executed planning, assessment, design and construction missions supporting state requests for two alternate care facilities. Four floors of the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa Okla., were remodeled providing an additional 116 beds and Integris Baptist Portland Campus in Oklahoma City Okla., providing an additional 110 beds. USACE has the capability and expertise to adjust alternate care facility designs between COVID and non-COVID, depending on states’ needs for specific site locations. The estimated 14 day construction process began at both facilities on April 27, 2020. (Released/U.S. Army Photo by Preston L. Chasteen)
6/10/2020
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A contractor works to finish drywall on the ceiling during construction efforts of an alternate care facility at Oklahoma State University Medical Center, Tulsa Okla., May 6, 2020. While working on a FEMA mission assignment at the request of the state of Oklahoma, the Tulsa District executed planning, assessment, design and construction missions supporting state requests for two alternate care facilities. Four floors of the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa Okla., were remodeled providing an additional 116 beds and Integris Baptist Portland Campus in Oklahoma City Okla., providing an additional 110 beds. USACE has the capability and expertise to adjust alternate care facility designs between COVID and non-COVID, depending on states’ needs for specific site locations. The estimated 14 day construction process began at both facilities on April 27, 2020. (Released/U.S. Army Photo by Preston L. Chasteen)
6/10/2020
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Amidst cold, rain, and the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Tulsa District maintenance crews working on the McClellan Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS) clean debris from the downstream side of the Webbers Falls powerhouse.
5/15/2020
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tulsa District will begin a phased reopening of USACE recreation areas that were closed due to COVID-19 across Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
5/7/2020
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Kim Sorrels spent four years as an advanced math teacher at Broken Arrow High School in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and at Meridian Technology Center in Stillwater before coming to work for the Tulsa District. The structural engineer is part of the front-line effort to assess facilities identified by the State of Oklahoma under a mission assignment from FEMA.
4/3/2020
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Kimberly Sorrels, an engineer from the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers checks the foundation and structural characteristics of a site while assessing it for potential conversion into an alternate care facility in Tulsa, March 28. Before coming to work at the Tulsa District in 2019, Sorrels was a calculus teacher, at Broken Arrow High School.
In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Corps is supporting the State of Oklahoma under FEMA mission assignment to provide planning and site assessments for Alternate Care Site in Oklahoma. The state will determine sites for assessment and make the determination about which sites are selected. Photo by Brannen Parrish — with Tulsa
3/30/2020
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The Tulsa District USACE is evaluating sites for the State of Oklahoma and FEMA.
The district has assembled teams tasked with evaluating sites.
Nationwide the USACE has received eight FEMA mission assignments totaling more than $1.1 billion and has approximately 15,000 people engaged in the COVID-19 Response effort.
3/30/2020
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tulsa District provides an update on boat ramp status throughout the district.
3/21/2020
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tulsa District announce campground closures in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas in response to the coronavirus
3/20/2020
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announces a temporary moratorium on new shoreline management use permit requests effective immediately at Fort Gibson Lake, to include boat dock and vegetation modification requests. Existing boat dock or vegetation modification permits in good standing can be renewed during the temporary moratorium.
3/11/2020
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Eufaula Lake campgrounds and day use areas have transitioned from first come first served sites to self service areas. Class A area campsites can all be reserved online through recreation.gov. Each site will also have a QR code, which can be scanned using a smart device.
3/10/2020
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tulsa District recently provided a safety officer and an industrial hygienist to the National Science Foundation United States Antarctica Program through an interagency support agreement.
3/6/2020
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The Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is constructing the KC-46 depot maintenance campus at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. Once complete, 14 state-of-the-art hangar facilities will populate a 150-plus acre campus. The KC-46 is the Air Force's newest Air Refueling aircraft and was created to eventually replace the service's aging KC-135 fleet, which has been delivering fuel to aircraft since the 1950s.
1/30/2020
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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District is proud to 30% of our workforce are veterans and have proudly served our country. This video is a small token of our appreciation to our veterans and all who have proudly served our country.
11/8/2019
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Taft Price is a former television weatherman who was impacted by weather in high school when his family's home was struck by a tornado. Taft came to work for the Tulsa District, from local television station, KJRH, Channel 2 in Tulsa early in 2019. Taft is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and is a certified meteorologist who spent more than 20 years in the television weather industry.
10/25/2019
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The Hugo Lake Project Office added the Tulsa District’s first forester in October.
Reilly Cloud, a former Tulsa District park ranger from the Hugo Lake Project Office, and former manages the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ forested lands in the Lower Red River Area.
Cloud, who grew up around Hugo and worked for the Oklahoma State Forestry Services before joining the Corps of Engineers, coordinates and executes timber sales called blue dot thinning and salvage cut sales.
Blue dot sales occur when some trees in a forest are culled to improve the health of the area by reducing competition.
Salvage sales are necessary when trees encroach on a dam or flood risk mitigation structure or when flooding, natural disasters or diseases damage trees.
“Blue dot sales are thinnings that will occur. It just helps increase the forest health as well as the wildlife,” Cloud said. “Thinning a forest will increase the forest health because it removes the stress of having to grow and compete with all the other trees around. It reduces the risk of the trees dying from insects and disease.”
Cloud will also be a district resource in the event of timber theft.
According to Isaac Martin, Hugo Lake Manager and acting Operations Project Manager for the Lower Red River Area. The project office determined there was a need for a forester when a change to dam safety requirements set a 50 foot clearance from the toe of a dam or levee to trees.
The goal of the requirement was to ensure access to flood control structures, and to provide a root free buffer zone as trees can damage flood risk reduction structures.
“At most projects that wouldn’t be an issue but in this area [southeastern Oklahoma] we have significant old growth timber that we were going to doze and burn,” said Martin.
According to Martin the project would be missing out on an opportunity and wasting resources if they just burned the trees. They began using foresters from other Southwestern Division Districts, including the Fort Worth District, to sell the timber.
Properly managed, forestry programs allow for thinning and benefit the forest’s ecosystems by removing some of the canopy which in turn reduces competition and allows sunlight to reach the forest floor activating the seed bank to allow for new and regenerative growth, Cloud said.
New growth in the forest provides sustenance for wildlife like deer and wild turkey.
“In a crowded timber stand, all of the food, the leaves are up high in the tree. When you thin a stand, trees will then have branches lower down,” said Cloud.
Thinning and salvage cutting also reduce the fuel load in wooded areas, minimizing the risk of wildfires.
Proceeds from the sales of timber on Corps property will go to support environmental programs.
10/23/2019
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Jason Tally is a Park Ranger at the Lake Texoma Project Office in Denison Texas. The Cartwright, Oklahoma native grew up just five miles from his current workplace. After 18 years away from home, which included several years touring with a band, then touring the world as a U.S. Navy Seabee; and finally as a safety officer at various construction sites in the United States, Tally returned home to assist the community he loves. His band plays in clubs and casinos in Oklahoma on the weekends.
10/17/2019
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The Oklahoma Wildlife Expo is billed as the largest event of its kind in Oklahoma and as in past years, the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will have a water safety booth set up and ready to go when the three-day event kicks off Friday, Sept 27 at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Park rangers from project offices throughout Oklahoma and Texas will be available to answer questions about recreation and water safety. The Tulsa District encourages visitors stop by the water safety booth, test their water safety knowledge, and win some schwag.
The Wildlife Expo is hosted by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation each year.
9/26/2019
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The Off Road Vehicle Area at Keystone Lake, Oklahoma is a popular site for dirt bike, ATV, and UTV riders.
8/29/2019
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Salvage crews prepare a barge for removal from Webbers Falls Lock and Dam 16 near Gore, Oklahoma, August 27. Crews were able to remove one of the barges which was blocking four gates and preventing the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from lowering four of the gates on the dam. Two barges came unmoored during the May 2019 flood in Oklahoma and struck Webbers Falls Dam on May 23. The barges are being removed by McKinney Salvage and Heavy Lift, Inc which was hired by the barge operator.
Webbers Falls Lock and Dam primarily facilitates navigation by managing the pool on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System which allows commerce through shipping on the Arkansas River from Oklahoma to the Mississippi River.
8/28/2019
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The stream below Tenkiller Dam in Okla. is home to a popular trout fishery; however, during the 2011 drought, low dissolved oxygen levels, and high water temperatures resulted in a fish kill of both trout and other types of fish.
As a result of a multi-agency effort, a two-part mechanical solution was developed to prevent further fish kills below the dam.
6/26/2013