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I’m excited to introduce myself as Blue Thumb’s new Field Education Coordinator. My name is Hunter Hodson, and I’m thrilled to join Blue Thumb, an organization that embodies the values of conservation and community engagement—principles that have guided my career.
Before joining Blue Thumb, I worked at the OKC Zoo, where I had the pleasure of supervising education programs and collaborating with an incredible team of volunteers. My experiences there, from developing innovative conservation curricula to managing large-scale education initiatives, have shaped my approach to environmental education. My background also includes extensive research and field experience at Virginia Tech and Northeastern State University, where I worked on projects ranging from aquatic entomology to apiculture. These experiences provided me with a deep understanding of our ecosystems and the critical importance of conservation efforts, which I’m excited to apply in my new role. I’m eager to bring this knowledge to Blue Thumb, where I’ll be focusing on supporting our volunteers and expanding our educational outreach across the western half of the state.
As I settle into this new role, I’m looking forward to working closely with each of you to continue Blue Thumb’s mission of protecting our precious water resources through education and community involvement. Thank you all for the warm welcome I’ve received so far. I can’t wait to see what we’ll accomplish together in the months and years ahead!
Wishing you clear skies and clean streams,
Hunter Hodson
Blue Thumb Field Education Coordinator
Clear The Way (if needed)
Clear out any debris, clogged algae or duckweed before monitoring.
We can't address every monitoring scenario during the initial two-day training. We throw out sooo much information during those two days, it would be overwhelming to try and talk about a bunch of special cases. But within the last 2-3 weeks, I’ve had two teams contact me about thick duckweed or algae and I have also personally seen two creek sites with flow and scum issues. I did my best to troubleshoot with two teams over the phone to aid them in monitoring, and I helped the other two teams while we were at their sites for their bug collection/QA.
In short, here is what I suggested and what we did. If there is a flow obstruction, try and clear a path. In the case above with all the algae, the flow was low anyway, but there were also sticks, leaves and debris clogging up the flow on the upstream side of the riffle. That debris needed to be pulled out so flow could resume and the algae and scum could move on downstream. Clear out any clogs first, then start filling out your datasheet, get your air temp and maybe even do your secchi depth and water temp. In that time, hopefully your bottle collection area will be clear. A site on Bishop Creek in Eastwood Park in Norman often has to do this due to beaver debris. The volunteer kicks the sticks and leaves out of the way to allow for more ‘normal’ flow, then he fills his bottles once the sediment and algae have cleared a bit.
If the creek site is not flowing and where you normally fill your bottles is covered in scum, algae or other floating stuff, see if you can find a a cleared out area that is also still deep enough for you to fill your bottles so you don’t get algae, scum or other debris in your sample bottles. Let me know that you monitored in a pool in the comments. This happened to a group in Wewoka recently. I was there to help them find a way to collect samples without collecting a bunch of unwanted stuff in their bottles.
All we ask is that you do your best. The "ideal"’ location to fill your bottles is on the upstream side of a riffle, at least wrist deep, without getting any algae, sediment, scum or other debris in your bottles. If you don’t have these conditions, then please do your best to troubleshoot and get as close to "ideal collections" as possible.
If anyone has questions or comments about this please contact me. I'd love to help you out.
YEAH! for new employee, Hunter Hodson
It has been a pleasure to have Hunter working with me the past 5-6 days. We even went on two-day adventure to finish up bug collections and QA’s in Sulphur, Wilburton and Howe. Hunter enjoyed meeting the volunteers and students we worked with and he loved all the creek sites. It was a true joy for me to hear volunteers' praises of the Blue Thumb program and staff when they were chatting with Hunter. (No, I didn’t pay them off!)
Kim Shaw
Blue Thumb QA Officer
My Monarch
My yard is a mecca for pollinators! Maybe that is an exaggeration, but I do have a large variety of native wildflowers that are now well-established. I am rather proud of my common milkweed, although I do not think the name fits. My common milkweed is taller than me and takes up nearly a third of my front yard!
Earlier this week I had a couple of monarchs actually laying eggs in what I call my milkweed forest. Now I am atwitter with excitement that maybe several of the eggs will hatch and the caterpillars will munch on the milkweed and then take off southward. Which brings me to the name of this article, My Monarch.
In late September 2023, like a spy, I was constantly inspecting my common milkweed plants for caterpillars. I found a few, but only two ended up in the chrysalis stage and I watched over these, waiting patiently. Doggone it! Wind and rain came and 50% of my monarch crop disappeared!
I was down to the one last chrysalis, and at the very end of September, I happened to be hiking through the milkweed forest when my monarch began to emerge. I stood by, and over the course of a little more than an hour, my monarch emerged and climbed to the top of the milkweed leaf from which it had been hanging. It worked at pumping fluids through its wings, and it practiced a few flaps and then took off straight west, then south, and then out of sight, instinctively making its migratory journey for which monarchs are famous.
If you will look at the very center of the photograph which accompanies this article, my monarch is visible. Did it make it to the wintering grounds? Did it live to be a parent to additional monarchs?
It is a wonderful thing to have animals that inspire us. I am just as excited this year to keep my inspections for “cats” on my milkweed up to date. If you do not have milkweed growing in your yard, get in touch with me and I will set you up with some friends of mine who can help you out.
Cheryl Cheadle
Blue Thumb Volunteer Coordinator
Blue Thumb is one of several partners hosting a fall gardening event on Saturday, October 5 in Tulsa. Please select the button below to view the flyer.
Blue Thumb and partners are hosting a similar event in Stillwater on Monday, October 21. Please select the button below to view the flyer.
Ashli Mansour Ahmed Mohamed submitted this fun article about her experience in Dr. Cheyanne Olson's Limnology class at Rogers State University. Ashli and her fellow students discovered a cool find in Crow Creek in Tulsa. Read the article to share in the discovery!
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