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From the Volunteer Coordinator
A return to Stream Monitoring
What a cold, windy, wet morning it was today, the 17th of February, 2022, when I returned to my roots of Blue Thumb monitoring. My teammate Kim Watson (Jenks) and I welcomed freshly trained volunteer Jeffrey Jenkins into our team to monitor Coal Creek, Glenpool, in Tulsa County. Kim was ill today, but Jeffrey and I met Candice at the stream for our bug collection at 8:00 am.
The bug collection did not happen. According to my rain gauge in the front yard, Glenpool got nearly 1.5 inches of rain last night, and last week we had several inches of snow. The stream was high. A high flow situation causes the bugs to either hunker way down or get swept downstream. Besides being too dangerous to make the collection, the results would not be representative of the stream at base flow, which is when we are supposed to make the collection. Remember - Blue Thumb protocols are set up so that the stream can show its best. Collections made when the water is too high or too low do not provide an accurate picture of the benthic macroinvertebrate community in Coal Creek.
Jeffrey and I decided to go forward with our February monitoring. I have taken off a full year. This means that Coal Creek has had no chemical data generated since March of 2021. I am excited that the Blue Thumb team made a fish collection on Coal Creek in 2021, and we ended up with a promising fish community. I reported on this for the eNewsletter last summer.
I have contemplated my stepping back from monitoring, and I have landed on no good reason for it, other than COVID issues and the depression that accompanied this. This morning, cold as it was, Jeffrey and I made it happen. he collected the sample and dipped his hands under the surface of the water to fill the DO bottles. We took out Secchi measurement and made our observations. We then met at the Glenpool Library to finish up the testing.
With Jeffrey having just completed training in Stillwater in January, it is ideal that he is getting started with monitoring now while training is fresh on his mind. Jeffrey and I are Glenpool residents, and Coal Creek is in Glenpool. Kim actually lives closest to the stream, yet is a Jenks resident.
In conclusion, Coal Creek is on the active list of Blue Thumb streams again. The City of Glenpool is aware of the monitoring efforts, and many Glenpool citizens are aware. We will continue to make people aware of Coal Creek and how it can best be protected.
Cheryl Cheadle
Volunteer Coordinator
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Greetings!
From the Director!
Have any of you noticed algae in your creek recently? It seems kind of counterintuitive to see algae in creeks in winter because we typically associate algae with the long, hot days of summer. But what do the long, hot days of summer and short, cool days of winter have in common? Lots of sun! During the winter, most trees in Oklahoma lose their leaves. When leaves fall to the ground, more sunlight is able to reach the stream albeit for fewer hours of the day.
Algae are a normal and necessary part of stream ecosystems. In the presence of high nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), algae can become excessive and reach nuisance conditions. Excessive algae can impact fish and macroinvertebrates in the stream because algae greatly impact the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water column. During the day, algae (like all green plants) photosynthesize and release oxygen. At night, algae respire and consume oxygen. These companion processes result in diurnal fluctuations in oxygen levels. If the stream has excessive algae, dissolved oxygen levels will be high during the day and lower at night. In some cases, the drop in oxygen can be pretty extreme and can stress, or even kill, fish.
Rebecca Bond
Blue Thumb Director
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Thoughts on Climate Change
Many thanks to several Blue Thumb volunteers who offered their input on climate change. Your February "From the Water's Edge" asked volunteers to weigh in, and below are some of their thoughts. Maybe this will also give you food for thought.
- Peter Grant: Weatherford
- The weather changes in Oklahoma very quickly. I think Oklahomans are used to that. So, when a newscaster or a meteorologist states that "December temperatures were the highest on record," I don't think a lot of people understand that this is not just a single event, but part of a long trend. When making statements about "the warmest" events, I wish a graph was shown to emphasize the warming trend over time.
- I think people are easily overwhelmed by global warming and its effects. How can a person solve a global climate problem, intensified hurricanes, or large regional droughts? They can't but collectively we can all work together to solve this problem. I would remind everyone of the strategy - "think globally, act locally." Just add one activity to do each week: carpool one day to work with a colleague (or walk or ride a bike), find out what's easy to recycle in your community (aluminum cans, paper or cardboard are good bets) and start recycling that item, or add a small clothesline to your backyard and use it to dry one load of clothes each week. These are all easy to do and, who knows, you may just encourage friends, family, and neighbors to do the same thing!
Tanya Chapman: Ada
- Weather is what's happening today or right now, climate is the accumulation and trends of daily, monthly, or even decades of daily weather events. Yes, the science shows that climate is indeed warming. History shows, and I personally believe, that climate change is a cycle this planet undergoes and is a natural process of renewal. The problem is, that we as a civilization are accelerating this process, making the warming cycle occur sooner than it is supposed to happen.
Dr. Steve Thompson: Alva
- Do I think climate change is real? Certainly. I think the long term data that we have is compelling. We are dramatically increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. It is causing changes to our climate. Directly and indirectly we are also increasing methane emissions, which is also a greenhouse gas.
- I am frustrated by comments that I hear. For example:
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The atmosphere is too vast. Human activity can't possibly be responsible for any changes in climate. Look at how extensively we've changed other aspects of our environment. Why is it so hard to believe our actions are also changing the climate?
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We're just seeing a naturally occurring cycle, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have changed in the past. True, carbon dioxide levels have changed in the past, but the rate of change we see now far exceeds those changes that occurred in the past several hundred thousand years.
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We can't do anything about it. It will be difficult, but the longer we wait, the harder it will be to make positive changes. Look at what we accomplished with CFC regulations and improvement in the ozone layer. True, that was an easier goal to target, but it gives me hope that we can make other big changes too.
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Doing something about climate change will be too expensive. Nothing doing anything about climate change is going to be expensive also. Just look at how hurricane damage has affected gasoline prices. As coastal flooding and other extreme weather events increase, insurance rates for all of us will increase. Climate change is going to have huge impacts on agriculture, affecting food availability and prices.
- There is no single, simple answer to climate change, but I really think if we all start taking positive steps, we can make a difference.
Beth Landon: Oklahoma City
- As Blue Thumb volunteers getting the word out to citizens in the State of Oklahoma, I think the kind of information, local information, in the article in "At the Water's Edge," is so much more helpful. Oklahomans needs to be concerned about the ability of animals to get the kind of food they need and what can be grown in Oklahoma. People might be encouraged to record the birds they see in their backyards and when, when buds come out on the trees, when they can plant what, etc. And keep this information for Blue Thumb.
To our Monthly Monitors:
Howdy Howdy from your QA Officer,
It will be officially Spring soon (I know we've had summer, winter, and spring temps this winter so seasons are all confusing) so lets talk bacteria. Microscopic organisms that are not fun, but we have equipment that you can use, if you so choose, to get a ballpark figure of the amount of E.coli at your site. Bacteria screening is optional, it's your choice, NOT mandatory. Are you a creek monitoring volunteer that wants to learn more about the process of bacteria screening/testing? Please check out the YouTube video or you can read the bacteria datasheet. It does take some extra commitment. If you'd like to screen/test for bacteria this summer (May-September), please contact me or your BT staff person. We need to know how many media bottles and petri plates to order by early April.
Spring season is also the time for outdoor educational events because Earth Day is in April. Be on the look out to attend a local event near you to learn something new about the earth, or if you'd like to partake in helping educate others, please let us know so we can plan to get you scheduled to help out. I know the City of Norman has a big Earth Day Festival Sunday, April 24th from 12:00-5:00 pm that I could use some help with at the Blue Thumb booth. Please contact me if you'd like to help with this event.
Kim Shaw
Blue Thumb QA Officer
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  ANNOUNCING: Grants for Volunteers from Friends of Blue Thumb!
Your small nonprofit "Friends of Blue Thumb" has had a better than expected year! One way of celebrating this is in the number and amounts of grants that we are providing to Blue Thumb volunteers!
Please look at the categories and amounts and make the bold decision to do something that will help your local streams and rivers! Check back with Cheryl for more information and deadlines. You might consider a theme of "I want everyone to know about Blue Thumb!"
$100 Grants
Five of these will be given to volunteers who are looking to form meaningful partnerships with other entities for the good of their local watershed. While not a lot of money, $100 can pay a registration fee, cover some postage, pay for a few gallons of gas to get to an important meeting or workshop, cover the cost of printing, or pair with additional money in your community to support a creek cleanup, hold a water festival, or provide bug boxes when you hold an activity with children at a stream.
$300 Grants
Three volunteers will receive up to $300 for funds that will help them make something happen locally! There is time to put together an Earth Day Festival. Three hundred dollars will for sure get this started. Maybe you want to promote a water research project for high school students and you want to buy some tools to make it happen. You like the idea of picking up trash along the creek and a little wagon will help. Consider how you can use a grant of up to $300.
$500 Grants
You are a teacher wanting to take your Blue Thumb "citizen scientists" on a field trip to study other streams within your ecoregion. You need help with paying for the bus and driver. You want to support a team of students taking their science fair project (based on Blue Thumb data) to the next level of competition. You want to rent a billboard to let your community know that we all live in a watershed - and our actions matter! You want a sign designating your stream as a Blue Thumb monitored site.
There are many ways that $100, $300, and $500 can make a difference to your stream and in your community. Talk to us about your ideas. You can email Cheryl for more information and also watch for an email from your Blue Thumb staff member. Let's make sure that everyone knows about Blue Thumb and how they can be involved in protecting streams!
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 Blue Thumb Volunteer Trainings
McAlester:
March 5 (Stream Ecology Education) March 6 (Stream Monitoring)*
Woodward:
March 26 (Stream Ecology Education) March 27 (Stream Monitoring)*
*Stream Ecology Education Training is a prerequisite to take this training*
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 The Oklahoma Conservation Commission's Soil Health Team works with farmers, ranchers, conservation districts, gardeners, municipal staff members, urban residents, and others to understand the value that well-functioning, healthy soil brings to our world. Over the last two years, the Soil Health Team and Blue Thumb have joined forces on a number of projects and events, and this is a natural - healthy soil leads to healthy water.
It is all in the connections. Through urban workshops, Soil Health and Blue Thumb have helped participants make the important connection of how healthy soil holds water and filters it, reducing flooding and removing polluntants. Through the day-long Full Circle Citizenship workshops, Soil Health and Blue Thumb emphasize that a waterbody is truly a reflection of its watershed, even diving into the history of a location, the most common landuses, and even the water quality of the nearest stream or river. Participants get the chance to slow down and consider, even help catch a fish and survey a rock pulled from the stream to see if any aquatic insects are moving about. This is the kind of event that takes us out into the world to meet our neighbors, and sometimes neighbors are fish, birds, and butterflies.
Would your community benefit from a visit from Soil Health and Blue Thumb? Our next road trip is to an Earth Day event in Durant, where we will provide an introduction to our urban community called "Soil, Water, and Ways... to Make a Difference!" We will spend time checking the health of the soil and discussing how this impacts the entire community. We will consider the ways that one piece of property can help or hinder a community. We will slow down and contemplate the world around us - and have fun while we do it.
If you have interest in this kind of an event in your community, email Cheryl Cheadle.
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- Citizen Science is rapidly growing across the world, and several people are taking notice! Among these are researchers who want to know how to use this data.
- The deep ocean is terrifying... beautiful! Deep-sea life was recently discovered near hydrothermal vents that shows brilliant colors!
- We all love a good success story. And the River Thames is a big one. It's on the road to recovery after being deemed "biologically dead".
- 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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