From the Volunteer Coordinator

A Deep Dive into Fish Collections

Part 3 – Fish at Home in the Stream

The animals of Oklahoma live where their needs are met – they are unaware of ecoregions or the places where field guides tell us to expect certain species.  This is the thought that I begin with for Part 3 of the Deep Dive into Fish Collections.  I hope readers will be okay with this article being more of a collection of thoughts than a document with a distinct beginning, end, and middle.

Where did our Suckermouth Minnows go?  Our collection in 1998 found Suckermouth Minnows.  Our collection of 2021 did not.  NEWS FLASH – I think we collected a Suckermouth Minnow when Jeffrey Jenkins and I led a creek walk on July 16, just a couple of weeks ago.

The more sensitive fish are fewer in number.  We collected one White Sucker, one White Crappie, and nine Redfin Darters.  That is a decent number of darters.  We collected over 200 Longear Sunfish.  This is inspiration for me to keep up my monitoring.  I am looking forward to my next fish collection. 

The Bullhead bulwark:  In 1998, we collected eight Black Bullhead Catfish, no Yellow Bullheads.  In 2021 we collected ten Yellow Bullhead Catfish, no Black Bullheads.  These are both quite tolerant fish.  We know that our fish collections might not always find every species.  I just find this interesting. 

Sand Shiners were found in 1998, but not in 2021.

If you are a new volunteer and have not been involved in a fish collection yet, you can still check to see if a fish collection has been done for your stream.  Just ask your local Blue Thumb contact (Briant, Candice, or Kim) or check out our interactive map here. It is possible there will not be information for your site, but there will be great reading on many of our Blue Thumb sites here.  One final thought – if you want to know a bit more about your stream’s fish, you can pull together some friends and neighbors and we can do creek walk or even simply a quick few pulls with a seine to see what we find.  You can touch base with your local Blue Thumb staff member or contact Cheryl about such an outing!!!

Summer is Upon Us

Through July 16, the streams in NE OK were holding their own so far as hot weather and low flow goes.  Monitoring at Coal Creek: Morris Park (in Glenpool, Tulsa County) on 7/28/23 saw no flow conditions and portions of the stream bed dry.  This is the fastest that I have ever seen my stream go from base flow to dry sections.  This is the reality now – no rain coupled with a string of days with 100 plus degrees is meaning a fast shift from moving water to small pools of hot water. 

Our dissolved oxygen was 2.4 mg/l.  This is the lowest I have seen my stream since I became a monitor on this site in 2016.  I am thankful to be invested in Blue Thumb and in the monitoring of my local stream as I know I am keeping important records of what is happening to our environment.  With every trip you make to your stream and every test result you submit, you are doing the same thing.  With every bug collection and every fish collection we do, we contribute to a better understanding of our world. 

I stopped by the Glenpool Library to see if my monitoring partner, Jeffrey Jenkins, and I can set up an exhibit about our Coal Creek monitoring for the month of August.  I hope this will work out because it will also allow us to advertise the upcoming training in Tulsa, August 26 and 27. 

Jeffrey is currently talking to Glenpool’s Public Works Director, Jesse Hale, about providing information about Coal Creek at an upcoming City Council meeting.  Jeffrey and I had the chance recently to also have a conversation with the City of Glenpool engineer.  We had a very candid discussion about the basic role of cities when it comes to environmental protection. 

I know of several Blue Thumb volunteers who have taken steps to talk with the officials for the cities in which their monitoring sites exist.  Not every volunteer monitors within the city limits, but many of us do.  Volunteers sharing what they know about their streams can make a difference.  Consider the “no mow” zones around Bishop Creek in Norman.  Consider the wastewater treatment plant operator in Edmond who learned that being in compliance did not necessarily mean that Soldier Creek was in good condition. 

Sometimes it can make a difference if city officials simply are made aware that a person(s) has an interest in a stream and is taking part in testing it.  Sometimes it can make a difference if a city council member sees people with testing equipment coming and going up a stream bank.  Consider inviting your city council member to join you.  Let us know what you doing, what you are trying.  This is an important moment in time for our planet. 

Cheryl Cheadle
Volunteer Coordinator

To our Monthly Monitors:

Education, Education, Education

I think the majority of life has to do with education. And I’m not just talking about grade school, high school, higher education. I’m talking about Google searching, talking with people, experiences, reading, etc. There is always more to learn.

With educational classrooms soon to be filled with students of all ages, I wanted to remind everyone that we provide education in many ways. We can take groups out to a local creek to show/experience/teach about water quality, riparian areas, erosion, watersheds, fish, creek bugs, etc. Sometimes when a teacher goes through Blue Thumb Training, they like for us to come to their classroom and offer a Mini-Academy for Monitoring to teach their students about the chemical testing and talk about QA. This experience usually takes about three hours, but we can tailor it to most any length of time. Other times we bring the EnviroScape™ into the classroom or to a group and teach all about non-point source pollution and water quality. If you are a certified volunteer, you can borrow an EnviroScape™ from us to use during an educational experience. We have other educational tools and activities that we can loan out as well. We just ask that you please give us plenty of notice so we can schedule the equipment as well as the pick-up and drop-off.

Creek monitoring volunteers can educate their local city authorities and/or citizens about the creek they are monitoring by using their data. Create a static display, a poster, handout pamphlets, a presentation, a data report, etc. and get it out into the local community. We will have a virtual meeting on this a little later in the year to hopefully give you all some ideas and sparks of interest.

Keep educating!

Kim Shaw
Blue Thumb QA Officer

Friends of Blue Thumb (FBT) is a nonprofit organization that is primarily known for helping volunteers with small grants, particularly to help them financially with monitoring supplies and educational outreach. 

Your FBT board members recently met at a planning retreat in OKC.  At the retreat they covered 1) incoming/outgoing money; 2) update of bylaws; and 3) brainstorming to create a more effective organization. 

All active Blue Thumb volunteers are members of Friends of Blue Thumb.  Watch “From the Water’s Edge” for announcements to apply for grants and other important news.  Currently the FBT board is seeking two new board members.  Meetings are held every other month via ZOOM, with one or two meetings annually in person.  If you are interested in serving as a board member, please email Chairwoman Terrie Becerra (tbererra@ecok.edu).

• 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," a project from the Izaak Walton League.
• The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is requesting help in six states (including Oklahoma) to create a research collection of butterflies and moths. You can help by mailing in dead butterflies or moths. Learn more here.

Oklahoma Conservation Commission

Oklahoma Conservation Districts

Project WET

Friends of Blue Thumb

Soil Health Program

Department of Environmental Quality

EnvironMentor

Macroinvertebrate ID Website