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From Your Volunteer Coordinator
2020 was the year of staying in and away from people. To some degree, 2021 still has a portion of this going on. With optimism, your Blue Thumb team is going forward with "Changes, Challenges, and Choices," an outdoor education workshop that you can read more about in this very newsletter!
Join us for lessons, demonstrations, and activities that will make us all better communicators about science and specifically let us know how we can be positive forces for the good of the earth.
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Do you have friends who would make good Blue Thumb volunteers? A Blue Thumb training took place in Oklahoma City in June, and two additional training sessions are on the calendar: Poteau (August 28 and 29) and Alva (September 11 and 12). There will be one additional training held later in the fall in the Tulsa area. Please let people know about these important events.
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The Yard by Yard Project is growing! Blue Thumb is an important partner in the Yard by Yard Community Resiliency Project. Three additional conservation districts have come aboard, meaning that now 12 conservation districts are involved, plus Oklahoma County Conservation District and Tulsa County Conservation District, both of whom initiated the project last year. Our total Yard by Yard effort now includes the following Conservation Districts:
- Muskogee County
- Deer Creek
- Shawnee
- Cotton County
- Murray County
- Delaware County
- Bryant County
- Cleveland County
- Payne County
- Cherokee County
- Tulsa County
- Oklahoma County
If you want to learn more about Yard by Yard, visit the website or contact me!
Cheryl Cheadle
Volunteer Coordinator
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Greetings from the Director!
October 22-24 Blue Thumb will be hosting an exciting event for Blue Thumb volunteers and Project WET, WILD, and PLT facilitators. The event is an outdoor education workshop called Changes, Challenges, and Choices. The workshop will focus on the interface between water quality and quantity and climate change, with an emphasis on positive things we can do and are doing to navigate these changes as successfully as possible. The workshop will take place on the shores of beautiful Grand Lake at Lee's Resort. We will take advantage of the wonderful October weather and scenery by holding most of the workshop outdoors. Registration is $75 for Blue Thumb volunteers and $125 for other participants and includes meals and lodging. This event will replace the volunteer conference we typically offer on alternate years. We hope to see many of you there. Spots are limited, so please keep an eye on our Facebook page and our webpage for an invitation to register. We plan to open registration August 15. If you have questions about this event, please email Candice.
Rebecca Bond
Blue Thumb Director
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To our Monthly Monitors:
Howdy Howdy from your QA Officer,
Comments... the comments box is a good thing to utilize. Please use the comments box to write a short description of what you circled that was present or changed since the last time that you monitored. An example of a useful comment might be, “my monitoring site received over 7 inches of rain during the last week in June and the first week in July.” With regard to rain, it is helpful to include information that tells us approximately when it rained, the amount of rain your site received and the intensity of the rain event(s). These are important comments to add and will be useful to anyone looking at the data.
The same thing applies if you indicate the flow and/or habitat have been altered. Please include additional information in the comments. Possible examples are: “due to recent rains,” “new gravel/silt bar,” “fallen tree or tree debris,” “a collection of trash pushing flow to the other bank,” “bank erosion,” “a new dam,” or “an existing dam broke.” You can even write "see photos" and attach a photo or two to your data so we can visually see why you selected flow and/or habitat alteration.
Comments about your results and site observations can be used to jog your memory in the future and will make your data more useful to others. Please record your data with the thought that someone completely unfamiliar with your site may want to use your data. I have been to a lot of the monitoring sites, but even I struggle when “flow and/or habitat alteration” is circled but no additional information is provided. Often I need to contact the volunteer and ask additional questions. You can head off a call or e-mail from me by providing this information in the comments. 😊 Please and thank you.
As always, keep submitting your data.
Kim Shaw
Blue Thumb QA Officer
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 Blue Thumb Volunteer Trainings
Poteau:
August 28 (Stream Ecology Education)
August 29 (Stream Monitoring)*
Alva:
September 11 (Stream Ecology Education)
September 12 (Stream Monitoring)
*Stream Ecology Education Training is a prerequisite to take this training*
Sign up here!
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 With June comes the first of the fish collections! This year, we are going to be focusing on fishing the Central Irregular Plains 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:
- Cherry Creek (August 9)
- Coal Creek: Hwy 11 (August 20)
- Coal Creek: Morris Park (August 10)
- Crow Creek (August 2)
- Elm Creek: 66th
- Fred Creek (August 16)
- Mingo Creek: 46th Street North (August 11)
- Spunky Creek (September 17)
- Trib to Coody Creek (August 4)
- Twin Hills Creek (August 25)
Fish collections are tentatively scheduled due to weather. We will fish during rain, so long as there is no thunder and/or lightening. 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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 Join us for a fun outdoor experience with the Illinois River Watershed Partnership! We will be sampling 12 sites across the Illinois River Watershed. Gain experience sampling and sorting benthic macroinvertebrates in some of the most beautiful streams in Northeast Oklahoma! For more information or to sign up for a sampling date, please contact Candice.
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- Coral scientists around the world are asking questions about how to protect and restore coral reefs in the wake of climate change. Check it out!
- The longest predator-prey study has been going on for more than 60 years! You can read about the study, featuring wolves and moose, here.
- 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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