From the Volunteer Coordinator
The End of a Year
What were your big things in 2021? New baby? New Grandchild? Retirement? Reach a fitness goal? Graduate? Take a special vacation?
Did you achieve any particular goals toward the stream you monitor? Maybe you do not monitor, but did you perform any type of education that might make a difference in your watershed? Did you pass on any information to let people know about a Blue Thumb training that was coming up near you?
Did you have your yard registered in the new “Yard by Yard” Community Resiliency Project? Did you tell any friends or neighbors that Yard by Yard is bit by bit making its way across the state?
Would you like to know some of the things that happened for me in 2021 (regarding Blue Thumb) that has me ready to spring into 2022 with a passion for protecting our one and only earth? If you do, I am asking you to email me. Let me share with you, and you share with me. Perhaps we can both get on track for great work next year. The moment is NOW.
The Deciduous Leaf Loss
Our November edition of “From the Water’s Edge” provided an article that spoke just a little as to why many trees exhibit colors beyond green before they die and fall off the tree. This article will try to explain a bit about trees losing their leaves as winter approaches.
Every tree loses their leaves, it is just that evergreens lose their leaves now and then, and at all times of the year they still have plenty of green leaves. These leaves are likely to be thick and waxy, or modified into needles – and these leaves are less likely to lose moisture and more likely to retain heat and moisture in drier, colder weather.
Deciduous trees go dormant in the winter – they do not die, they just greatly decrease their metabolic activities while it is colder and drier. These trees let go of their leaves, thus saving energy during the reduced daylight and the colder and drier days of winter. Trees are true conservationists – leaves in winter can be pretty resource intensive.
To be more accurate, deciduous trees do not simply let go of their leaves, they actually “push” them off the branches. “Abscission” cells form where leaf stems meet branches, and these cells serve to sever the tie between the leaf and the rest of the tree. As moisture picks up and days grow longer in the spring, new leaves grow and the whole process begins again.
Cheryl Cheadle
Volunteer Coordinator
To our Monthly Monitors:
Howdy Howdy from your QA Officer,
Time flies by from the week of Thanksgiving thru the start of the new year, I want to make sure I don’t forget to say Happy Holidays to you all and yours!
Thank you to all you volunteers that have monitored the past 12 months in a row; never missed a month. WOW! Thank you for your dedication and diligence for monitoring and also for submitting your data. Of the 82 creek sites that have had at least one monitoring episode during November 2020 – October 2021, 12 creek sites have been monitored every month:
- Beaty Creek (Delaware County)
- Bishop Creek: Eastwoods Park (Cleveland County)
- Cloudy Creek: Glass (Pushmataha County)
- Coal Creek: N. Sara Road (Grady County)
- Owasso Creek (Tulsa County)
- Salt Fork of the Arkansas (Woods County)
- Sand Creek: Osage Hills State Park (Osage County)
- Spring Creek: Rocky Ford (Cherokee County)
- Tenmile Creek: Davis (Pushmataha County)
- Turkey Creek (Washington County)
- West Cache Creek (Comanche County)
- Wolf Creek: McMahon Soccer Park (Comanche County)
We understand that work and life and other things sometimes take precedence sometimes over creek monitoring. I just wanted to recognize those creek sites (volunteers, you know who you are) that have monitored for at least 12 months in a row.
2022 Blue Thumb Calendars are out and about. If you want one, or several, contact your local Conservation District Office or ask your Blue Thumb staff person.
Happy Holidays to you all!
Kim Shaw
Blue Thumb QA Officer
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