 We are currently accepting applications for a Field Education Coordinator and an Environmental Education Coordinator. The application period for both positions closes on July 19th.
June was CRAZY!
Well June was a whirlwind, to say the least: cancelling the Tishomingo Training, saying goodbye to Briant, attending the NANFA Conference, starting fish collections, and taking on Project WILD.
This is not my usual QA article for volunteer monitors. I just felt like covering our crazy June 2024. And as I write this article, June isn’t even over yet!
Sadly, our Tishomingo training scheduled for June 1-2 was canceled due to low registration. I think we only had 5 people register; we need a minimum of 10 people. Maybe it was bad timing? We hope to have a training next year out that way.
We are currently accepting applications for the Field Education Coordinator position. In the meantime, Candice and I are covering the field area previously covered by Briant. Candice is handling Stillwater, Alva and the panhandle. I am handling OKC, Lawton, Enid and Weatherford. Please bear with us as we adjust to changes. Creek monitors in these areas, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, need reagents, need help getting started with monitoring, etc. We’ll keep good notes and will schedule with you as best we can. Just know summer is our busiest season with fish collections, bug collections/QA’s (I need to get working on scheduling these!), other educational activities.
The NANFA Conference (North America Native Fish Association) was a lot of fun and in beautiful Beavers Bend State Park! (Check out the photos, below.) A lot of the members of this association are fish hobbyists, growers, sellers, etc. and some career scientists. This was a different kind of conference than the standard conference for professional scientists. I really enjoyed it. There were maybe a dozen states represented at this conference. All the presentations on Friday, June 7th were great. Saturday and Sunday were all field trips. Rebecca and I paired up and really enjoyed learning from Bill and Edie Matthews (retired fish experts from OU) as they led us to 4 sites an hour north of Beavers Bend. The Matthews are working on a fish book that should be out next year. We are REALLY looking forward to this book!!!! We laughed a bit when a couple of the out-of-staters were wanting to see red shiners. Red shiners are abundant over most of Oklahoma but not really in the SE where we were. I will now see red shiners differently due to this request!
So far we have completed eight fish collections and have a bunch more scheduled. If you’d like to join us on a fish collection, please let me know and I can fill you in on our schedule. We’ll be fishing all through July and August.
We are also working on seeing how we can incorporate Project WILD into our traditional Blue Thumb trainings. In May, we became the sponsoring organization for Project WILD in Oklahoma. This really warranted us creating a new position for an educator to take the lead on Project WET and Project WILD. In the very near future we will be interviewing people for this position and training them.
How has your June been?
Kim Shaw
QA Officer
 Top left: Highland Stoneroller with beautiful breeding tubercles. Top right: group photo. Bottom left: Ouachita Mountain Shiner. Bottom right: Redfin Pickerel. Fish photos by Kim Shaw. Group photo by Cheryl Cheadle.
The Unsung Heroes of Freshwater: Mussels
North America is a hotspot of mussel diversity. Mussels are sensitive to changes in the environment. Two things they must have to survive are water and fish. Water is a given, and fish play a critical role in mussel reproduction.
Male mussels release their sperm near the female mussel and she filters it from the water for fertilization of her eggs. These fertilized eggs remain in a special “brood chamber” within the female until the time is right – and when the time is right the mama mussel attracts a host fish by using body parts to mimic a minnow or a larval insect. When the fish approaches, the mama mussel shoots her larval mussels (glochidia) into the water where fish and glochidia collide.
The glochidia attach to the fish’s gills, or in some cases fins. There they ride along until they have grown enough to drop off and land on the stream, river, or lake bottom. There they grow into adults, unless channelization, sediment, reduced water supply, or pollution hurts them. Of the nearly 300 species of North American mussels, 70% are endangered, imperiled, or extinct.
Mussels filter water and leave it cleaner than how they found it. Mussels are a food supply for animals like raccoons and otters. These unobtrusive and well-camouflaged animals are unknown to most people. Their decline does not seem to be receiving much attention.
Conservation of mussels begins with understanding that mussels are extremely beneficial to stream and river ecosystems. Some biologists have playfully called these unique invertebrates the “livers of the rivers.” What mussels live your local streams?
Protecting existing habitat is critical for mussels, as is limiting development that does not take into consideration protection of local ecosystems. Managing stream flow so that water for healthy fish and mussel populations exist is critical, and making sure enough water flows downstream can be difficult in a world where water is being grabbed for human consumption, irrigation, industry, etc.
You can be a cheerleader for mussels by learning more about them and your local streams. Also monitor a stream – this draws attention to the cause of protecting water. Bring mussels into conversations. Learn if decision makers know about the decline of mussels. Be willing to talk about these mild-mannered animals.
Lobby for riparian area protection and manage your lawn so that you do not send dangerous chemicals down the storm drain. Do your part NOT to introduce invasive species into the ecosystem. If you are an active Blue Thumb volunteer, you have already stepped up to the plate to be an advocate for stream life.
Nearly a Year Ago - Blue Thumb Training in Enid
I enjoyed Blue Thumb training in Enid in late summer, 2023. What stands out to me is a visit to a popular rock shop in Enid. Of course the people I met and got to know at the training, some of whom decided “Yes, I will monitor a local stream,” are the most important part to the trip. But this rock shop contained a rock that “rocked” my world…something I had never seen before.
As I moved through the rock shop, admiring this piece and that, and looking at the beads and the jewelry they offered, I was in my element. It is no secret that I call myself a rockhound, and by this I mean a person who has no formal training in geology, but a great interest in rocks.
There were two workers in the rock shop, the owner, and a staff member who probably worked there because he loved rocks. At least this is my interpretation. I traveled down the aisles and the worker said to me “Did you see this?” I said yes, that is an awesome quartz crystal.” Again he said “Did you see this?”
Clearly he was not getting the reaction from me that he felt the rock deserved. I turned to him and the rock, and he handed it to me. I stood with the nice piece of quartz in my hands, it probably weighed six to eight pounds and was sort of a mixture of regular quartz and quartz crystals. Then I saw what excited the rock shop staff member: within this already very special rock there was a void nearly an inch long. Inside this void there was LIQUID WATER!
I had never seen anything like this. I tilted the rock from side to side and watched the water move. I asked “How much for this rock?” He scoffed and said “Are you kidding? This rock is not for sale.”
How many times have I said to elementary school students “All the water we have now is all that we have ever had; no new water is being made.” While water is constantly refreshed through the hydrologic cycle, no new water is out there. It is up to us to conserve and protect our water, our most valuable resource. I think of the quip I used with students “You know, the dinosaurs drank the same water that you drink now.” Seeing that piece of quartz with water trapped inside it makes me hope that I was passionate when I said this to young people. In the last year (since my water-in-rock encounter) I know I am more passionate.
When you monitor and turn in your results, you may not feel the same astonishment that I felt holding that piece of quartz and tilting it to see ancient water moving, but maybe you should. I, too, monitor for Blue Thumb. That couple of hours that I spend at the creek, then completing the tests, then sending in the information is perhaps my most important contribution to caring for Oklahoma’s environment.
By the way, are you aware that we at Blue Thumb would like to publish your thoughts about your monitoring experiences? Send us an article about an aspect of monitoring that you find interesting. Challenge students to send us their thoughts on protecting Oklahoma’s environment. Since you are a recipient of “From the Water’s Edge” do you ever forward this e-newsletter on to people who care about streams and rivers? Or could you send it to people who should care more? If you do not, will you consider doing so?
The rock in the Enid rock shop with the encapsulated liquid water inspired me. As a volunteer with Blue Thumb, will you take steps to inspire others to care about our precious water resources? Please say yes!
Cheryl Cheadle
Volunteer Coordinator
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