Welcome to 2024!
2024 Blue Thumb Calendar
I hope you received a 2024 Blue Thumb Calendar and will participate in the monthly challenges. The challenge for January is to go one month without purchasing unnecessary items. This month we encourage you to ask yourself a few questions before you make a purchase:
Is this something I really need?
Do I have something at home I could use instead?
Will I still be using this item five years from now?
Can I buy a used item that would meet the same need?
Please share your journey with us on Facebook and Instagram. Together, we can learn habits that put less of a strain on our beautiful planet.
Special Monitoring Project for Bishop Creek in Norman
In 2022 and early 2023, I worked with a watershed group to develop a watershed based plan for Bishop Creek in Norman. This project was the result of a request from Karen Chapman, a long-time volunteer who monitors Bishop Creek. Watershed based plans are developed to address known impairments in a watershed or to protect pristine waterbodies. Blue Thumb data suggest that Bishop Creek periodically suffers from low dissolved oxygen. The Blue Thumb test for dissolved oxygen is a screening-level test. The stakeholder group was interested in collecting dissolved oxygen data using an EPA-approved method to determine whether Bishop Creek is impaired for oxygen. This summer the Oklahoma Conservation Commission will support their efforts by loaning them a dissolved oxygen sensor. Stay tuned for the results of this special project!
An EPA-accepted watershed based plan makes a watershed eligible for Clean Water Act Section 319 funding. An EPA-accepted plan is one tool that can be used to obtain funding for implementation, additional monitoring or education and outreach.
Rebecca Bond
Blue Thumb Director
With the new year stretched ahead of us, will you consider making it a goal to join the Yard by Yard Community Resiliency Project? Yard by Yard is a project, supported by Blue Thumb and additional partners, that recognizes homeowners and renters for having “nature friendly” properties.
Your yard can:
- Feed butterflies, birds, and bees
- Create habitat for small urban creatures
- Clean and slow stormwater runoff
- Reduce flooding and mitigate drought
- Grow nutrient-dense vegetables and fruit
- Cool an overheating planet
Be a part of the growth of this awesome project in 2024. Visit the OACD webpage to learn more.
Webinars Ready and Waiting for You!
The year 2023 was filled with efforts to uplift and support Blue Thumb volunteers during our year of celebrating 30 years of Blue Thumb! Maybe you participated in some of the events, maybe you did not.
Three data webinars took place. These were put together by Kim and Cheryl. Often volunteers want to gain a better understanding of the data they collect. If you did NOT tune in on these webinars, here is good news! Go to our Blue Thumb website and you can click on these and listen to them at your leisure.
Visit our website and the webinars are front and center. If you want to better understand your data and even why we have a Blue Thumb Program, these webinars will help.
Blue Thumb Facebook Page
Every Blue Thumb volunteer wants to help protect our streams and rivers. Here is something simple that you can do…lead your family, friends, and co-workers to our Blue Thumb Facebook page!
Blue Thumb staff members are conscientious about taking photographs and getting information out to the public. Facebook is one platform that we use to reach the masses. You can also check us out on Instagram!
If you use social media, stay tuned to the Blue Thumb Facebook Page and Instagram feed and share posts and make comments. If you are not active on social media, you can still refer others to Facebook and Instagram to connect with Blue Thumb. Let’s see if we can grow our followers as a result of this little article in From the Water’s Edge.
Cheryl Cheadle
Volunteer Coordinator
My name is Patrick T. Hayes, and I am the Naturalist for Tulsa County Parks, a volunteer for Blue Thumb, and recently attended training to become a Certified Interpretive Guide. As these organizations have different missions, interpretation is the skill necessary to bridge gaps between individuals, communities and our natural world. Quoted from author Rachel Carson, “In Nature, nothing exists alone.”
Many will hear the word, interpret, and generate a mental image of a foreign language being translated, or perhaps antiquated symbols deciphered into contextual understandings. Countless written and spoken languages have been used to preserve information, culture, family lineages and environmental history that require the skill and nuance of accurate and appropriate interpretation to understand and communicate. Our human languages are as diverse as our history. How would the equally complex language of Nature be expressed and who has that role?
Data has a critical role in conveying information by taking quantitative, tangible measurements of specific parameters. Dissolved oxygen measurement tells a chemical story of a stream’s pulse, the availability of a critical environmental resource. The continual monitoring of this data point allows for a greater understanding of trends in a given stream. But if we are to love a stream, would the story of dissolved oxygen be enough to get you there?
Interpretation will take the tangible and intangible observations and measurements of a feature or phenomenon and present the information in a way that inspires meaningful engagement and understanding. What might resonate best with you: the story of the river otter’s plight or an annual report of quantitative stream data? Both are necessary for an authentic environmental account, yet it is the study of interpretation that takes the silent language of Nature to craft an honest story. Interpreters learn to listen and translate the patterns of our environment, taking part in a timeless tradition of storytelling, cherishing cultural and historical roots otherwise unseen. We do not love streams just for the data, but also for the sounds of babbling water, the ripples made by wind, the life at home within the banks, and the riparian area cradling the creek. We use basic interpretive skills to help find our place within our shared world.
The National Association for Interpretation (N.A.I.) is an internationally active organization that facilitates the practice of interpretation for natural and historical heritage sites. Thirty countries are represented by N.A.I., providing training, resources and guidance in the skill of interpretation. Their definition of interpretation is as follows:
“Interpretation is a purposeful approach to communication that facilitates meaningful, relevant, and inclusive experiences that deepen understanding, broaden perspectives, and inspire engagement in the world around us.”
Through this lens we may see that the interpretive gift of sharing, honoring and communicating that which is foreign and unknown to us is vital for meaningful engagement in our world. Stories allow us to share similarities with the flight of the eagle and the howl of the coyote, the energetic, colorful burst of life in Spring and the tranquil, rolling sound of a stream. Interpretation is the bridge to our environment, inviting you in through conversation with Nature.
|
