Greetings, Blue Thumbers!
In reviewing some of the volunteer hours last week, I was delighted to see how many of our volunteers have proven themselves to be very dedicated to their streams. Education hours are down (gatherings in 2020 had to be stopped because of COVID). People going to their streams though, that continued.
I monitor a stream north of Glenpool, Coal Creek. Lots of Oklahoma counties have a Coal Creek or two. My volunteer partner, Kim Watson, and I missed some monitoring. I indirectly blame COVID. It is understandable that some of you did miss your monitoring while quarantining, maybe while there was discomfort in getting together with teammates, maybe even ill. For every month you made it happen - thank you. Don't feel bad if you could not make every monthly monitoring event happen. What a year.
Even though I cannot spy into the future, I think 2021 has bright things ahead. I think that in a few months, we will see COVID rates declining. Then, cautiously, we will begin thinking about the ways that we can spread messages of stream protection again... by working with children, having exhibits at fun events, and going to the places where we have a chance to talk to others. We will not rush this through. We will play it SMART.
In the meantime, keep in mind that there ARE things you can do to share your enthusiasm for clean streams and rivers. You can write a letter to the editor, post information and photographs on social media, attend a virtual conference or workshop, create a brochure about your monitoring experiences. Can you think of other ways to lift up enthusiasm for our awesome waterways? If so, send me an email so that I can share it with the other volunteers.
Let's keep sticking together!
I have two XL lovely t-shirts from Keep Oklahoma Beautiful. This month you will have to be FAST and of a specific size to gain a freebie because you read your newsletter! Get in touch with me quick because there are only TWO of these nice looking shirts. They could even make a nice gift.
Cheryl Cheadle
Volunteer Coordinator
To our Monthly Monitors:
Howdy Howdy from your QA Officer,
Well, our creek monitoring volunteers (and others) have asked us for years about how they can view Blue Thumb data. We are well on the way to open access of Blue Thumb data. I have been working closely with our OCC GIS expert, Shellie Willoughby, and we (mainly Shellie) have created a site!
This link will show you the data that our creek monitoring volunteers have entered into the Data App/Link; this viewable data has been QA'd. There is a map view that pins where we have data entered. You can click on a specific pin and see what data has been entered for that site. There is also a tabular view where you can see all the data or even sort the data just to see what there is for a particular county or site name, etc. The data can be downloaded into an excel spreadsheet for your use. If you personally have an ArcGIS account, you can add other map layers to help you with your research. Some volunteers have taken advantage of the data entry App and have included photos along with their monitoring data. This link will not show past data, only current data that has been entered into the newly created data App. I am currently working with Shellie to make historical data viewable and available for download. Stay tuned! If you want to see bug and fish data, you will still need to request that information from our database manager or Blue Thumb staff. It is not perfect, but this link is a HUGE step forward. A BIG "Thank you!" to Shellie Willoughby and also to the Arizona Water Watch Program for helping us get this far! The link above is posted on our website. So go check it out and see what data our creek monitoring volunteers have generated in the past two months!
Kim Shaw
Blue Thumb QA Officer
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