In October, Casey Bartrem (TIFO Executive Director) and Whitney Schroeder (TIFO Digital Media and Communications) returned to Owyhee, NV, for a productive week with our partners at the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe (SPT). We continued training on Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), engaged with the community, reviewed the first year of grant activities, and discussed plans for 2025.
TIFO met with Tribal Environmental Protection Program (TEPP) employees and a representative from the Tribal Council to develop comments on EISs for proposed mines. Participants reviewed a section of a previous EIS for a proposed mine in Nevada and example comments. Participants shared their questions and concerns, leading to a meaningful discussion about glaring omissions in the EIS, reviewing where current Tribal processes need improvement, and identifying future training needs.
We visited the Environmental Science class at the Owyhee Combined School, where we talked about heavy metals and soil contamination. Students tested their memory of the periodic table and used the XRF to test household items and soil samples (regional and international samples from TIFO projects) for heavy metals. It was fun reconnecting with several students who participated in the One Habitat education program TIFO and SPT collaborated on in 2021.
Marina Steiner continues to support SPT employees pursuing their GIS certification. She hosts a bi-weekly working session for participants in the course to address questions and challenges.
We are one year into our three-year grant with SPT, and we are excited by our progress. We have all learned so much about the challenges Tribes face engaging in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The TIFO team is especially impressed given the obstacles SPT faced this year. A hydrocarbon plume under the K-12 school required lobbying the state of Nevada to release emergency funds for a new school. The Tribe learned that Agent Orange had been used in irrigation canals by BIA, and the Tribal offices have dealt with numerous internet and power outages that stopped work for days at a time. These issues have required TEPP and other departments to scramble to respond to emergencies while still chipping away at their daily duties and our grant goals. For a small Tribal government, that is not a small undertaking. As we revisited our grant work plan, we considered everything we learned this year and the feedback from the community to draft plans for our approach in year two.
November brought our SPT partners – Molly Snapp, Racheal Thacker, and Aunna Woods – to TIFO headquarters in Moscow, ID. We were able to coordinate several events, including:
A presentation in Dr. Romuald Afatchao’s NGOs in the International System class at the University of Idaho (UI), where students heard from TIFO and SPT and asked questions of both groups and their collaboration.
A conversation with the UI Native American Student Center - some of whom were familiar faces from Owyhee - where TEPP shared their work and explained why it is essential.
A discussion with Dr. Becky Witinok-Huber, an Environmental Health Social Scientist at the University of Wyoming and former TIFO student researcher, about her grant from the National Oceanic & Atmosphere Association Adaptation Sciences Program (NOAA-AdSci). The grant will fund the co-creation of tools and indicators to assess transformative adaptation in preparing for and enhancing resilience and sustainability in the face of climate change. SPT is exploring opportunities for involvement.
Lastly, the TEPP team attended the TIFO Annual Celebration, where Racheal presented the Seven Generations project to about 200 members of the Moscow community. This name comes from the Native American principle of making decisions today that result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future.
To everyone who met with our SPT partners and attended the celebration, thank you for making their experience on the Palouse positive and impactful.
Fall has been busy with all things data! Marina is working with the Ministry of Health Karakalpakstan (MOHK) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to gain a better understanding of MOHK’s historical water monitoring data. Marina had the opportunity to share her preliminary analysis at a virtual meeting with MOHK and then at the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) North America Annual Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, in October. The audience loved hearing about TIFO’s role in working on the Aral Sea Crisis, and Marina was able to make some great connections with other researchers in the region.
Marina has combined the historical monitoring data and the 2023 TIFO sample data to perform a Human Health Risk Assessment. Under the guidance of Casey, Margrit, and Ian, Marina has been able to relate sample concentrations directly to human health risks. We have begun to identify contaminants and rayons of the most significant concern. These findings will inform future health intervention strategies.
ICYMI: MSF and the Lancet Countdown joint brief 2024 released in October includes TIFO’s 2023 collaboration with MSF and MOHK in the section on “tracking climate and environmental trends to tackle health threats.” You can find TIFO, MSF, and MOHK co-authors at the end of the brief. We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with our partners and share our project with a larger audience.
The deaths of four hundred Nigerian children in 2010 shocked the world and drew international attention. Their families and communities changed forever. Their villages were strangely quiet. Our conversations with mothers, fathers, imams, and village heads were painfully somber. News quickly traveled among those who worked in environmental health that this tragedy was due to lead poisoning. It became a story that everyone in the public and environmental health sector referred to as a horrific, exceptional situation. At that time, lead poisoning was known to rob children of IQ points and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in adults, but it rarely killed people. In Nigeria, lead and death walked hand-in-hand.
The 400 children who died and thousands who were severely poisoned in northern Nigeria pushed the boundaries of knowledge about lead. TIFO’s founders had vast experience working at lead-contaminated sites from Idaho to Senegal to Far East Russia. As a result, we worked closely with the CDC outbreak investigation team, Nigerian partners, and MSF. The 10-day assessment trip turned into two months of emergency response, then two years of remediation, and eventually, a 12-year comprehensive environmental health project. Nigeria and the lead crisis are central characters in TIFO’s origin story. As a newly hired TerraGraphics Engineering intern in 2010, Nigeria and lead poisoning quickly became the center of my world.
Lead is among the most well-researched toxicants known to humans. In the US, we think about lead in the paint of older houses or water pipes in urban areas. But for much of the world, lead ends up in communities from battery recycling, industrial emissions, and mining – activities that are less and less common in high-income countries. The removal of lead from gasoline contributed to blood lead levels dropping dramatically worldwide. However, many countries have yet to reach the blood lead levels typical in high-income countries like the US. There’s no safe amount of lead exposure – every milligram of lead comes with an increased risk for a lifetime of health impacts. But despite our extensive knowledge of both lead toxicity and the approaches to addressing it, millions of children are still poisoned by it.
Image source: Vanguard Nigeria (2024)
In 2022, I took a part-time, four-month position as a technical advisor to USAID to support the agency in developing a comprehensive strategy for tackling lead poisoning through the US government’s international development programs. It was an opportunity to take the wealth of information and experience I learned working in Nigeria and for TIFO and use it to inform global activities. More importantly, I firmly believed – and still do – that building capacity to address lead poisoning is the foundation for addressing other environmental health issues. We know so much about lead and how to tackle it – it makes sense to start with lead and use it as a model for building broader capacity in environmental health.
Four months with USAID turned into eight months, then a second one-year contract. Lead was named one of three priority areas for the agency, and Administrator Samantha Power promoted tackling the issue within USAID Missions and with leaders worldwide. In September 2024, I participated in a UN event to announce the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future (PLF)—an initiative where world leaders committed to eradicating childhood lead poisoning by 2040. The event was inspiring, and I stood in awe of the people in the room, but it also left me reeling. I was with experts whose names I’d heard of but had never met in person. There were presidents from five countries and representatives from a dozen more. First lady Jill Biden’s Secret Service team (including the dogs!) thoroughly checked the soil testing equipment I brought, which was definitely a first. President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi gave a moving speech, noting that “There is no faster way to rob a country of its future than poisoning its children.” But my most crystal clear memory is when I showed the Nigerian Minister of Solid Minerals how to test contaminated soil from Zamfara homes and talk with him about what happened there 14 years ago.
The goals of PLF are ambitious. Addressing lead poisoning is simple in principle – as in we “simply” need to stop exposures from occurring – but enormously difficult in practice. In addition to the industrial sources of lead exposure, many countries have to deal with lead in paint, cosmetics, cookware, and even some spices. The sources are diffuse, and the markets are complex. Industries are resistant to cleaning up their act, access to testing equipment is limited, and dozens of competing priorities push environmental health down the list of issues. But for the small but mighty team of people who worked to address the worst outbreak of lead poisoning in history in one of the most isolated locations, we not only know that it’s possible – we know how to do it.
Congratulations Phindele!
Phindele Ugwu, former TIFO GEMs student, just completed her Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences at North-West University in South Africa. Her dissertation is on the risk of residual mercury from historical mining in South Africa. We are so thrilled for Phindile and this wonderful accomplishment!
Having our Shoshone-Paiute partners join us from Nevada was a special treat. They shared with us what a delightful experience they had meeting the Moscow community.
Coming together like this is impossible without your support! Thank you to all the incredible local sponsors and our tireless team of TIFO volunteers who helped us pull it off:
- Becky Witinock-Huber
- Bryce Blankenship
- Elisabeth Berlinger
- Jesse Cunningham
- Julie Fodor
- Marina Steiner
- Pam Rogers
- Sydney Mudgett
- Trevor Fulton
- And everyone else who chipped in at the event unprompted!
Stefan and his team from Pour Company kept delicious drinks flowing and were wonderfully easy to work with. And hearty cheers to Moscow City Council Member Bryce Blankenship for his mind-blowingly tasty mocktails. Bryce volunteered his time and skills to elevate our non-alcoholic game this year. Jesse Cunningham was responsible for the homemade chili bowls that were so tasty we ran out! Last but not least, we are grateful that the Jon and Rand Band was able to join us again this year, delivering the dancing jams and joyful celebration of TIFO’s work.
Thank you all for being part of the TIFO story!
We are big fans of wearable art, so we have new shirts on the way with art by Moscow, ID artist Kate Perkins. Email info @ terrafound.org with your shirt size to get added to the early notification list.
Welcome Sydney
Welcome, Sydney Mudgett! Sydney joins the TIFO team as a marketing intern. She is a second-year student at Washington State University’s Carson College of Business, double majoring in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Outside school, she enjoys skiing with friends, traveling, and playing volleyball.
After graduation, Syndey aspires to work as a Marketing Director in the fashion industry, where she can combine her passions for the analytical and creative aspects of marketing. Through this opportunity with TIFO, she hopes to sharpen her marketing skills, gain valuable hands-on experience, and learn how to create impactful campaigns.
“I am excited and truly honored to work for such an amazing cause at TIFO. It’s been inspiring to contribute to a mission that makes a real difference. I’m grateful for the opportunity to help spread awareness and be part of a dedicated community committed to positive change.” – Sydney Mudgett
TIFO Meat and Greet
5:30 - 7:30 PM
Tuesday, March 25
Shattuck West Taproom
630 N. Almon St., Suite 135,
Moscow, ID
Eat sausage, do good. Happy Hog meatery will be grilling up sausages with all proceeds going to TIFO and Shattuck West Taproom will donate $1 from each beverage sold. Learn More >>
Boise Meet and Greet
4-6 PM
Wednesday, April 16
Payette Brewing Company
733 South Pioneer St.,
Boise, ID
Join the TIFO team for a casual evening of drinks and camaraderie at Payette Brewing. Learn More >>
Nonprofit x Community Block Party
Noon - 4 PM
Saturday, April 26
Moscow Contemporary
Palouse Place (Mall)
1850 Pullman Rd.,
Moscow, ID
Celebrate community with regional nonprofits and fun-filled games and activities for the whole family! Learn More >>
Idaho Gives Karaoke Night
6 PM, Monday, April 28
Shattuck West Taproom
630 N. Almon St., Suite 135
Moscow, ID
Warm up your vocals, and get ready to sing the night away! Join local nonprofits as they kick off Idaho Gives. (Beverages on hand for extra courage!) Learn More >>
Uncharitable Documentary
5:30 PM
Thursday, May 1
Kenworthy Theatre
508 S Main St
Moscow, ID
“UnCharitable” will change you. It will change everything you’ve ever thought or been taught about charity, giving, solving the great problems of human suffering that have plagued humanity since the beginning of time. You will come away with hope you thought was no longer possible. Learn more >>
Dr. Ed Galindo Book Signing
10 AM - Noon
Saturday, May 10
BookPeople of Moscow
521 S Main St
Moscow, ID
Join us for a book signing event with TIFO Board Member Dr. Ed Galindo. Talk with the author and kick off your summer reading with two incredible stories. We will have both of Ed's books - Children of the Stars and Dance of the Salmon - on hand. Learn more about Dr. Galindo here.
- The 34th Annual PNW-SETAC Conference call for proposals will open in December (the exact date is TBA).
- FG, UNICEF, USAID to combat lead poisoning. Vanguard.
- Every climate action counts: The ripple effect of each failure on health systems in humanitarian settings. MSF and the Lancet Countdown joint brief 2024.
- A Remote Tribe is Reeling From Widespread Illness and Cancer. What Role Did the US Government Play? AP News.
- When Water Turns to Sand. NPR.
- The Department of Energy Promised This Tribal Nation a $32 Million Solar Grant. It’s Nearly Impossible to Access. ProPublica.
- Watch: Launch of the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future. Children’s Environmental Health Collaborative.