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From your Volunteer Coordinator!
As you read this, you are in the thick of spring. You might be gardening, you might be planning a vacation, you might be watching the skies for severe weather. You may have just finished your monthly monitoring for April and you have sent in your data. You might be determining the grades for your students and planning outdoor adventures with them.
As I write this, it is Earth Day Eve, and I have been delivering education tools to volunteers, preparing for exhibits, and getting ready for a "Soil, Water and Ways... to Make a Difference" workshop in Durant.
When I also read this as it lands in my email box on May 1, an intense moment of outdoor education will have ended, and some fun and effective outdoor education is on the calendar for May. Even though it hasn't happened yet, I am confident my April monitoring will happen because it is on the calendar!
Cheryl Cheadle Volunteer Coordinator
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It's all about Land Use
As many of you know, the Conservation Commission is designated by statute as the state agency responsible for “monitoring, evaluation and assessment of waters to determine the condition of streams and rivers being impacted by nonpoint source pollution.” We are also designated as the agency responsible for coordinating environmental and natural resource education in Oklahoma. (If you have trouble sleeping, I recommend you take a stab at Oklahoma Statute Title 27A: Environment and Natural Resources. ) These two objectives-- monitoring streams to assess the impact of nonpoint source pollution and educating Oklahomans about nonpoint source pollution--are the bread and butter of the Blue Thumb program. An understanding of land use is critical to both of these objectives.
Nonpoint source pollution is a byproduct of how we use land. If we fertilize our lawn, we likely contribute nutrient pollution to a nearby stream. If we clear trees from a big section of our property, we likely contribute sediment to a nearby stream. If our livestock loaf in the creek on a hot summer day, they likely contribute nutrients, sediment and bacteria. Our chemical monitoring gives us a good idea of what types of pollutants may be in our stream, but it does not tell us why. To discover the “why?” we must look at our watershed with water-smart eyes. As you walk, bicycle or drive around your watershed, notice what is going on upstream of your sampling location. Is there a lot of exposed soil at a construction site? Have you noticed many 5-acre ranchettes with three or four horses and lots of bare ground? Is there a new gravel mining operation nearby? You will likely notice positive changes, too. Maybe a section of riparian area has been restored, the city as implemented a no-mow zone around a section of your creek, or a local farmer has transitioned to no-till methods. As you notice changes in your watershed, ask yourself how these changes might impact water quality. You donate your time to Blue Thumb because you want to protect and restore streams.
Monitoring is a first step toward protecting streams, but monitoring should be followed with targeted education. In our experience, very few people knowingly contribute to nonpoint source pollution, and most want to do better when they understand how their actions can positively or negatively impact streams. Targeted education can be as simple as stopping to admire a neighbor’s pollinator plot and telling her you appreciate her effort to protect streams, support pollinators and improve soil health. Or it may mean stopping by a construction site with poorly installed silt fences and asking to speak with the person in charge of stormwater management. You can make a difference. You can protect and restore Oklahoma streams one conversation at a time.
Rebecca Bond Blue Thumb Director
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To our Monthly Monitors:
Howdy Howdy from your QA Officer,
I hope you all had a great Earth Day Month and got out and did some education for others. I’m still on the education bandwagon. Here is an article I wrote for our OCC newsletter. I figured, why not get more use out of it? So here ya go.
Did you know that Blue Thumb educated kids in Alaska on April 4th? Wait, is this an April fools joke? No, it is fact. At 8 p.m. Oklahoma time, 5 p.m. Anchorage, Alaska time, Kim Shaw (Blue Thumb QA Officer) Zoomed with Daisy Girl Scout Troop 740 to help them earn their “Water Wonders patch” and to learn some unique things about Oklahoma to go towards their “Journey: Between Earth and Sky.” The co-leader of the troop and I went to college together at OU. She and her daughters saw some of our Facebook videos that we created when COVID was intense so she asked me if I would educate her Daisy Girl Scout Troop. I was ecstatic and very nervous all at the same time. Daisy Girl Scouts are 1st graders. I prefer to work with 4th graders and older, but I didn’t want to shoot this opportunity down. It is a HUGE passion of mine to educate Girl Scouts about water quality/conservation. I have not found much luck in doing that in Oklahoma, so why not educate a willing troop in Alaska? I introduced myself to the 13 girls: I told them a little bit about my personal journey through Girl Scouts (tag-a-long in Germany, Brownie in Illinois, Junior to Cadette in England, Cadette to Senior in Oklahoma) and a little bit about what I do for my job as a scientist. Then I presented some interesting and unique things about Oklahoma (showed them a rose rock and selenite crystal). We started with the basics of the water cycle and then did a Project WET activity called ‘A Drop In The Bucket’. This activity is a very good visual that shows how much of the earth is covered in water, but what a tiny amount is fresh and available. Then we talked some about how they, even at their young age, can help conserve fresh water. I was reluctant to open it up for questions, you NEVER know what a 1st grader will ask or say, but I did and was amazed by their on-topic and insightful questions. So in an hour of Zoom time, I believe the girls learned some new information about water and retained some of it, too. Most certainly a memorable experience for me, and a step outside of my comfort zone.
If you or your child/children are in Scouts (preferably Girl Scouts, but I will certainly work with Boy Scouts and Campfire as well) or know of anyone that is, please pass on my email or phone number (405-627-3787). I would prefer to be in Oklahoma, with hands on/in person, but I guess I can do just as well via Zoom, ask Alaska Girl Scout Troop 740.
 Kim Shaw Blue Thumb QA Officer
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 Make the world a better place!
The deadlines for volunteer grants have come and gone, and Friends of Blue Thumb is happy to have awarded grants to six Blue Thumb volunteers who made a request. The grants range from $300 to $500. The money will be used for:
- All weather gear to provide children's outdoor education in all kinds of weather
- Specialty exhibit materials for the Crow Creek Community in Tulsa
- Riparian area protection booklets for the landowners of a specific watershed
- Exhibit materials and environmental education support for Horse Creek in northeast Oklahoma
- Educational materials for an environmental teacher workshop
- Plants and educational signage for a rain garden
Friends of Blue Thumb is passionate about helping volunteers with outreach. Next year, when we announce that we are accepting applications for grant proposal, please jump in and ask for a little money!
Volunteers!
Do you want to give a Blue Thumb t-shirt to a friend? Do you work with students who wish they had a Blue Thumb shirt? Blue Thumb and Friends of Blue Thumb are working together to make it possible for a specialty T-shirt to be available for sale. If you are interested, please email Cheryl.
Thank you!

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 Blue Thumb Volunteer Trainings
Oklahoma City: June 11 (Stream Ecology Education) June 12 (Stream Monitoring)*
*Stream Ecology Education Training is a prerequisite to take this training*
Sign up here!
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 My name is Cheyanne Olson and I am a student from the Environmental Science Department at Oklahoma State University. I am writing to invite you to participate in my research study identifying participant outcomes for volunteers of Blue Thumb programs. If you decide to participate in this study, you will be asked to complete an individual survey to assess your experience with Blue Thumb. If you agree to the study, you may click this link to the Qualtrics survey to begin. On the survey, if you include your name (which is voluntary), you will be entered in a drawing for random prizes, with more details to follow.
Remember, this is completely voluntary. You can choose to be in the study or not. If you have any questions about the study, please email me.
Cheyanne Olson Instructor of Biology Rogers State University
  For weeks now, the peculiar blue-green color of pre-emergent herbicides have been painting lawns throughout Oklahoma. Home owners are known to limit lawn diversity with herbicides. Although a diversity of plants is known to be better for our soil, water and wildlife than a monoculture, there are still many individual home owners, businesses, and even parks and other public areas that respond to spring with the application of herbicides, which falls under the general heading of pesticides.
What does it mean to the earth that rests beneath this blue-green application of pesticide? It is easy to look at herbicides as only limiting what grows on the lawn. That is not the case.
From studies by all kinds of universities and research giants, we know that herbicides can pose a clear hazard to the creatures that live in the earth. Killing the life in soil (bacteria, fungi, macroinvertebrates, etc.) makes it impossible to have healthy soil. Healthy soil is the key to clean water - and it is also the key to reducing local flooding and mitigating drought.
Springtails, earthworms, beetles, and ground-nesting bees are a few of the creatures that might be found living in a shovel-full of earth from one of our Yard by Yard properties: a property that uses no pesticides. These small creatures move through the earth and create spaces, add organic matter, and live their little lives that help create the whole healthy ecosystem that can exist among the soil, plants, and animals (including humans!). The addition of an herbicide - and insecticides that can do even more damage - disrupts these activities.
Sometimes pesticides are the best option. Termites or carpenter ants can threaten our homes and business. Some invasive plant species may only be successfully eradicated through chemical application. But everyone can choose to limit the use of these chemicals to times when there are no other options. So a change in philosophy is needed so that we and our neighbors view a more naturalized landscape that has numerous species growing as a good thing. We can also share the message that not every insect is the harbinger of a coming plague that will wipe out the existence of our gardens, flowers and the very homes we live in. This will not happen overnight, but we can engage in conversations that will help. We can have our yards certified so that others wonder what we are up to. We can help at an Earth Day event or other environmental education event, or we can set up a clean water exhibit at our local library. There is work to be done. As a Blue Thumb volunteer, we need your voice to be heard in your community.
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- Spotted Lantern flies are an incredibly harmful invasive species that is covering the country by storm. Want to help stop the spread? You can learn how to easily catch these pests using only a water bottle!
- Why so blue? Just ask this lobster and read all about this incredible, once in a lifetime catch!
- 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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