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Hey Volunteers!
Many Blue Thumb volunteers have been with the Blue Thumb Program long enough to have worked with Quality Assurance Officer Kim Shaw to have completed a data interpretation. If you are one of our newer monitors or education volunteers, you might not know much about data interpretations. Volunteers monitor streams to gain data. Over the course of a year, you will collect the following types of data:
- 12 months of chemical data
- 1 winter bug collection (with bug picking effort)
- 1 summer bug collection (with bug picking effort)
- bacteria information (optional)
- 4 Quality Assurance experiences
With the help of Blue Thumb staff, you will complete a fish collection, flow measurement, and habitat assessment within the first four years of adopting a site, and then every 4-5 years following as long as monitoring is continued.
Once a full set of data exists, the information is pulled together and the result is a data report that is completed by the volunteer(s) and then reviewed by Kim. Once the report is finalized, it is available for use by any and all volunteers to use for education efforts. Finalized data reports are also placed on the Blue Thumb and Oklahoma Conservation Commission websites for access by the public.
Dozens of data reports can be accessed. Fish lists are also available for each site with a finalized data report. A link to the fish list(s) will appear with the link to the data report when you use the map viewer on the Blue Thumb website or the map viewer on the Oklahoma Conservation Commission website. Volunteers are encouraged to check out our website to learn more about Oklahoma's streams. Blue Thumb staff members and volunteers have been working together to highlight these data reports, which are typically written in layman's terms and provide great information on the condition of local streams. Check out the reports. Does one exist for your stream, perhaps written by a volunteer who monitored there before you? Have you completed a report? Let's work together to use the volunteer-written data reports to help the public embrace stream protection. If you would like to learn more about writing a data report but have not yet received a data package for your stream, we have a handful of data packets on several streams around the state that could use a written data interpretation. Get in touch with your Blue Thumb staff contact or with me if you are ready to help others learn about an Oklahoma stream.
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Nurture your Inner Author!
As a Blue Thumb volunteer, you have a story to tell. Would you like to describe the site where you monitor? Would you like to share the reason you became a volunteer? Do you have some pointers to offer from your experiences working with children? Can you write a review for a recently read book about the environment? The whole Blue Thumb staff would like for volunteers to consider our eNewletter “From the Water’s Edge” to be one vehicle you can use to write about helping the earth.
We will place your headline in the newsletter and readers can click to get to the complete article. By sharing your thoughts and experiences, you encourage others to see their own volunteer experiences in a new light. Plus, you will help to make “From the Water’s Edge” a more valuable, diverse resource.
If you choose to send an article for publication, please email it to me. Include at the top of the article:
- Your name and names of others with whom you monitor
- Your stream name and county
- The year you became a Blue Thumb volunteer
If you are an active volunteer but you are not a monitor, just send your name, when you became a volunteer, and any pertinent names of places you might describe.
Cheryl Cheadle
Volunteer Coordinator
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What happens when your creek has a Fish Kill?
When you become a Blue Thumb volunteer, you begin the journey of really getting to know a stream. Because you return to the same site month after month, you see your stream in all seasons, at low flow, high flow, and occasionally, you may observe something out of the ordinary. In August, we went with a volunteer to do a fish collection on Sanborn-Hazen Lake Creek in Stillwater and we observed a fish kill, which is clearly unusual. Most fish kills are due to low dissolved oxygen, but can also result from an influx of pollution, so it is wise to proceed with caution if you witness a fish kill. If you do observe a fish kill, we recommend that you stay out of the water.
So what is the protocol for reporting a fish kill? The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) is the lead agency to respond to fish kills. They coordinate an interagency task force called Oklahoma Kill Response Management Team (OKRMT). The mission of OKRMT is "to facilitate communication and collaboration between government entities regarding fish kills, to provide a framework for coordinated, consistent, and effective fish kill response." If you observe a fish kill, please call Ferrella March at 405-702-5175. If you are unable to reach Ferrella, call the ODEQ environmental complaints hotline (800-522-0206). Make sure to tell the person who answers the phone that you need to report a fish kill to OKRMT. Please report any fish kills to Blue Thumb as well.
After you have reported the kill to ODEQ, document your observations. Helpful observations include:
- Number of dead fish
- Stage of decay
- Extent of kill upstream and downstream
- Any unusual circumstances such as odors, sheen, etc.
Thank you for being the eyes on Oklahoma streams. What you do makes a difference.
Rebecca Bond
Blue Thumb Director
 Water/Ways Changes location
The Smithsonian Exhibit Water/Ways has finished its run in Norman and opened on Tuesday, August 27, at the Ada Public Library. An exciting ribbon cutting and educational festival took place in front of the library from 4:00 to 7:00 that evening.
If you are in the Ada area, be sure to take your friends and family to Water/Ways. There will also be a Blue Thumb table set up to provide the public with a way to say "I want to do more!" after contemplating issues brought to the surface with the Water/Ways exhibit. The library will even have opportunities to be a docent, which is something that Blue Thumb volunteers may want to do.
In association with Water/Ways, the Library hosted a Blue Thumb Education Mini-Workshop on Monday, August 26, from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm. A similar mini-workshop will be held in NE Oklahoma at a couple of different locations this fall. The point of these additional short training sessions is to provide volunteers with the chance to gain experience with Blue Thumb tools for education available for checkout. The mini-workshops are guaranteed to be fun and short. Contact Cheryl for more information.
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To our Monthly Monitors:
Howdy Howdy from your QA Officer Kim!
Something important to bring to the attention of you volunteer creek monitors: please submit your data in a timely fashion. It is important to send in your data as soon as you can by using the pdf adobe fillable form (this is my preferred method) that is on our website, scan and email your datasheet, snail mail, take photos of your datasheet and text or email to me; I will pretty much accept your data anyway you can get it to me. The sooner you can get it to me the better because:
- if any of the results are too high or too low, they need to be reported to DEQ. The sooner DEQ can be made aware, the sooner they have the chance to do some further testing
- if you are a new creek monitor perhaps you need some monitoring tips/corrections
- so it is not lost/forgotten/misplaced
- we write all kinds of reports throughout the year and like to use as current data as possible
- data requests from other people
- any other potential questions
Volunteer creek monitors put in a lot of time, effort, and heart into generating data; please don’t let it get lost/misplaced... or submit it two years later with some high readings that potentially could have been investigated to determine the cause. We want your data to be used, so please send it in as quickly as possible after you have completed your testing. I do know that life happens and sometimes things come up, but please, turn in your data as soon as you can. Thank you.
Kim Shaw
Blue Thumb QA Officer
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  Make the world a better place!
The 2019 Blue Thumb Festival, hosted by the Friends of Blue Thumb, will be held on Saturday, September 28th from 10:00am to 4:00pm (Indoor and Outdoor Vendors) at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lawton, Oklahoma. All proceeds from the Festival will be donated to the Friends of Blue which is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
Indoor vendors will be located in the Bison Room and outdoor vendors will be located in the front parking area, southwest corner. Attendees will experience a unique selection of merchandise, products, and art from several Oklahoma vendors, as well as some out-of-state vendors. Set up will begin at 8:00am Saturday for both indoor and outdoor vendors. Set-up needs to be completed before 10:00am.
Interested in being a 2019 vendor? Contact swbluethumb@gmail.com for additional information and vendor application forms. The vendor booth/food truck fee is $40.00. No refunds.
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 Education Mini-Workshops
Keep an eye out for future workshops coming to your area, and try to attend if this is something that interests you!
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 Blue Thumb Volunteer Trainings
Alva:
October 5 (Stream Ecology Education)
October 6 (Stream Monitoring)*
Locust Grove:
November 2 (Stream Ecology Education)
November 3 (Stream Monitoring)*
*Stream Ecology Education Training is a prerequisite to take this training*
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 Fish Collections are almost complete for this year. We have 3 collections scheduled for the Stillwater area. If you would like to help on one of these collections, please let us know! Fish collections typically take all day, beginning with a stream habitat assessment and ending with seineing 400 meters of stream (roughly a quarter of a mile).
Our remaining collections are:
- Boomer Creek: 3rd Ave (9/12/2019)
- Feather Creek (9/13/2019)
- Stillwater Creek: Babcock Park (9/11/2019)
If you decide to accompany us on a fish collection, but do not monitor a stream, please email us to figure out what time you need to be there. You will also need a pair of close-toed shoes that can get wet/muddy, clothes that can get wet and dirty, sunscreen, a hat, plenty of water, and something for lunch. We can provide you with more information after you speak with us.
Dates may be scheduled or cancelled with little notice depending on rain events.
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 Soil Health will be holding several upcoming events to learn more about healthy soil:
- Grazing Field Day in Ada (9/7/2019)
- Grazing Field Day in Oklahoma City (9/24/2019)
- Urban Soil Health and Water at Will Rogers Park in OKC (9/11/2019)
Contact Amy Seiger for more information!
Soil Health also holds trainings throughout the year to educate people about the importance of health soil in their own lives, and in their communities. If you want to know more about soil health, or sign up for a training, you can follow them on their Facebook.
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- As Blue Thumbers, we've all been aware of the harmful blue-green algae blooms that are occurring across the country at the moment. Perhaps most distressing is the effect that it is having on our four-legged companions. Excess algae is caused by an increase in nutrients (mostly phosphorus), increased water temperature, and no flow.
- We all know that zebra mussels are a hazard to the aquatic environment and that it has been an increasing challenge to prevent their spread from one body of water to another. But did you know that a new tactic is being used to sniff out zebra mussel veligers? Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is now using dogs to detect these baby mussels on boats and other things that could transport this invasive species to new water. You can read more about it here!
- Speaking of invasive species, Asian Carp are nothing to laugh about! Check out this video from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife and learn more about Asian Carp that are becoming a very concerning issue in the U.S.
- Chris Goforth, or better known as the Dragonfly Woman, has a whole blog dedicated to dragonflies and other aquatic insects. You can read all about her and her adventures here!
- Want to know more about OKRMT and fish kill protocol? Click here!
- Don't forget about the "Stream Selfie" project from the Izaak Walton League, the #trashtag movement, and tick testing!
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