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Let's work together...
For watershed education! Many thanks to the volunteers who invited me to visit you at your site and talk about watershed education. It was nice to ease back into the world "small group" style and consider how we can make more and more people aware of the impact on streams and rivers. If you want to invite me to come to your site and discuss a good path forward for watershed education, please do so. I will even help you complete your monthly monitoring!
Cheryl Cheadle
Volunteer Coordinator
An Insider Look
The Blue Thumb staff is providing to you a little "inside look" at some of the communications that take place within the Oklahoma Conservation Commission. If you will pull out your Blue Thumb calendar and look at the page on the backside of the cover, down the left column you will see the path that explains that Blue Thumb is a program of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission's Water Quality Division. So your Blue Thumb staff members are all Conservation Commission employees, and OCC has a lot going on. You have information about the different OCC divisions in the back of your Blue Thumb calendar.
Bryan Painter, the OCC Public Information Specialist, prepares a newsletter that goes out to OCC staff members and others each month. Here you can access the June edition. Of particular interest to volunteers is the story of the small town of Hammon and how drought and flooding took a toll 90 years ago. There are also links to news videos featuring Oklahoma farmers who are getting involved in chaos farming. In this difficult moment, treat yourself to people giving back to their communities in wonderful ways. And at the same time, get an "inside look" at the agency that the Blue Thumb Program happen!
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Happy 4th of July!
The Oklahoma Conservation Commission and the Blue Thumb Program use the data you collect in a variety of ways: for education and outreach, to prepare internal and external reports, and to assess water bodies to determine whether they are supporting the Fish and Wildlife Propagation use. This month I would like to encourage you to think about ways you would like to explore your data. In other words, I would like to empower you to design and conduct research that interests you. Here are a few possibilities to get you thinking:
- Compare the data from your streams with data from other streams in the same ecoregion
- Compare data from two sites on your stream. You might want to collect data upstream and downstream of a potential source of pollution (point or nonpoint)
- If you know major construction is scheduled to occur near your stream, collect data before, during, and after construction
- Intentionally collect dry weather data and wet weather data (as long as it's safe to do so) and explore the differences
- Look at seasonal patterns in chemical data or macroinvertebrate data
- If long-term data exists on your stream, explore trends over time
Each of you are well-qualified and trained citizen scientists. There are countless questions you ask your data. Jump in and keep us posted on your research projects and findings.
Rebecca Bond
Blue Thumb Director
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To our Monthly Monitors:
Howdy Howdy from your QA Officer,
Summer is officially here, as of Saturday, June 20th. A few places in Oklahoma have already had over 100°F temps. Even though we've had some cooler temps around Father's Day, the humidity has stayed up. I am saying all this so I can bring up a safety issue of monitoring in the heat. It takes about 20 minutes to an hour (or more) for onsite monitoring. If there is no shade at your site, you might want to take an umbrella or a big hat to create some shade. Sometimes the Oklahoma wind is hot and dry, so shade, a wind block, and drinking water might be needed at your site to help you get through monitoring comfortably. Take drinking water with you, even if you leave it in your vehicle. Having a refreshing, cool drink waiting for you in the vehicle will help motivate you to climb that creek bank. Wear sunscreen, bug spray, sunglasses, a long sleeve shirt, etc. to help protect you from the elements and make your onsite monitoring a more pleasurable experience, with potentially better data. I got heat stroke when I was a lifeguard and it was not a terribly hot day (high 80s, I think). I was around and in water but I don't think I drank enough that day. Protect yourself and whomever goes out with you when you monitor this summer. Stay safe.
Kim Shaw
Blue Thumb QA Officer
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 Make the world a better place!
Friends of Blue Thumb is working with volunteers and conservation districts to make good education happen! There have been many opportunities to give to worthy charities in the last few months. If indeed you want to see Friends of Blue Thumb continue to support protecting streams and rivers in Oklahoma, consider sending them a gift. Checks can be mailed to:
FBT
P.O. Box 58103
Oklahoma City, OK 73112
 
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 Blue Thumb Volunteer Trainings
Claremore:
September 19 (Stream Ecology Education)
September 20 (Stream Monitoring)*
McAlester:
November 7 (Stream Ecology Education) November 8 (Stream Monitoring)*
*Stream Ecology Education Training is a prerequisite to take this training*
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 Fish collections are underway! This year, we are going to be focusing on fishing the Cross Timber's Ecoregion. If your stream is not on the list, and you would still like to help us fish, please get in touch with Kim Shaw.
These are the streams that we have scheduled for this year, and some dates that we already have scheduled:
- Clear Boggy Creek: Hwy 377 (July 15)
- Coal Creek: Morris Park
- Coffee Creek: Hwy 66
- Feather Creek (August 3)
- Mooser Creek: Pepsi (July 8)
- Okmulgee Creek: 13th
- Okmulgee Creek: Muskogee Ave
- Rock Creek: Oklahoma Street
- Sanborn-Hazen Creek: Strickland
- Sand Creek: Osage Hills State Park
- Sharps Creek: Grove
- Sharps Creek: Silo
- Soldier Creek: Hwy 66 (July 13)
- Soldier Creek: Reno Ave (July 1)
Fish collections are tentatively scheduled due to weather. We will fish during rain, so long as there is no thunder and/or lightning. Dates are also subject to change due to available help or other circumstances. You can see an updated list of fishing dates on our website.
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 As we approach summer, we are in the thick of the growing season. Gardens are filling out, flowers are blooming, and lawns are being mowed. From March to October each year, grass clippings increase the volume of residential solid waste between 20 and 50 percent as people send mountains of organic material that could otherwise be composted to landfills. A simple way to reduce this is to utilize a mulching lawnmower that returns the clippings to the soil. As the clippings breakdown, they return nutrients to the soil, improving the soil condition over time, helping to hold moisture and reducing nutrient input needs. This is a good alternative to bagging lawn clippings and sending them to landfill.
If you want to go a step further, consider composting your lawn and landscape clippings using a simple composting method such as a compost tumbler, a wire-mesh bin, or a wooden pallet bin. This allows you to compost larger volumes and use the material in other places such as your vegetable garden and flower beds. You can help reduce needless waste by following the "Don't Bag It" lawn care. To learn more about the "Don't Bag It" plan, check out the Recycling Yard Waste: "Don't Bag It" Lawn Care Plan fact sheet or search Oklahoma State University fact sheets website to learn more about home composting and other topics.
Joshua Campbell
Extension Educator
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma County
 
- Help track butterfly migrations with the Painted Lady butterfly migration Citizen Scientist Project.
- Want to expand on your knowledge and understanding of the distribution, biogeography, biodiversity, and identification of dragonflies and damselflies? Well, now you can at Odonata Central!
- Did you know that there is a whole association for Citizen Scientists? You can become a member and learn more about it here!
- Don't forget about the "Stream Selfie" project from the Izaak Walton League, the #trashtag movement, and tick testing!
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