What inspired you to get involved with Blue Thumb?

For John, it was so long ago he really has to dig deep to find that memory. He had been dealing with groundwater but wanted to learn more about surface water and this was a great opportunity for that experiential data.
For Sara, John inspired her as she wanted to share in the interests that her (at the time, soon-to-be) husband enjoys.

What do you enjoy most about volunteering with Blue Thumb?

For Sara, it's the free breakfast before sampling (just kidding), but spending time collecting and evaluating data, along with sharing our mission with those who ask "What is sampling the creek?"
For John, it's the comradery not only with the 3 of us who sample Spring Creek I-35, but with the Blue Thumb volunteers as a whole.

How long have you been with the program?

For John, 29 years.
For Sara, 6 years.

Is there a memorable moment or lesson from your time with Blue Thumb that stands out?

For Sara, it's the time we walked the ¼ mile of the creek for fish collection, taking measurements, photos, and learning where the "big holes" are in the creek.
For John, it's the time Sara got slapped in the face by the sunfish, screamed like a girl, and made everyone laugh...he still laughs to this day it was so hysterical!
And we couldn't do sampling without Gretchen - she keeps us on our toes, on track, and is a true citizen scientist hidden under the I-35 bridge.

Sara & John Harrington
Blue Thumb Volunteers

From the Director

Are you ready for Christmas? Maybe not, but we are already busy planning a Blue Thumb Volunteer Conference for Saturday, December 6. Save the date because it’s going to be a great event! The conference is an opportunity to showcase your work, learn more about different aspects of aquatic ecology and spend time outside with friends. We are still working on the agenda, but we anticipate a plenary about historical ecology by Dr. Steve Patterson and a talk about Oklahoma fish by Dr. Edie Marsh-Matthews. Which topics would interest you? Freshwater sponges? PFAS? Microplastics? Harmful algae blooms? Reach out to Hunter and let him know!

Thank you, Kim Watson, for the article you submitted for the April newsletter. It was great to hear your perspective about the importance of nonformal education. We would love to highlight articles from other volunteers. Please think about submitting an article about a creek experience, or about the way your work with Blue Thumb intersects other aspects of your life. To submit an article for a newsletter, please email Hunter, the editor of From the Water’s Edge. He prefers to have articles by the 15^th of the month for the following month’s newsletter (although I have a bad track record of meeting the deadline…).

Finally, each month Hunter tries to include an interesting article about current developments in science, usually related to aquatic science and/or volunteer science. Check these articles out! Fittingly, you can find these articles under the heading “Check This Out!”.

Happy monitoring!

Rebecca Bond
Blue Thumb Director

What's in Your Watershed?

I told people when I retired from my over thirty year science teaching career that I was actually “re-firing.” Fortunately for me the opportunities to “fire up” for the things I love are abundant. Two of my favorite activities are volunteering with Blue Thumb and working part time as a naturalist at Oxley Nature Center.

For Blue Thumb, I monitor Spring Creek. Its watershed is located in a sparsely populated rural area of Northeast Oklahoma. Flowing relatively rapidly through the Ozark foothills, Spring Creek is historically one of the most pristine creeks in the state. The Secchi disk is always visible even in the deepest part (~2 meters) and oxygen readings are always over 100% saturation. Macroinvertebrates are diverse and plentiful in the gravelly bottom of the riffle where we sample and there is a healthy diversity of fish.

Oxley Nature Center is located at the north end of Mohawk Park, one of the largest urban parks in the country. It contains a variety of aquatic environments, Bird Creek, Coal Creek, a swamp, a marsh, and a sizable lake. The Coal Creek watershed is one of the largest in the city of Tulsa and it includes several residential, industrial, and commercial areas. The hydrology was altered in the 1930’s when the Civilian Conservation Corps dug a channel to divert the flow which prevented severe flooding on one side of the park and provided water for the lake they constructed on the other side. Normal flow is slow, but floods bring a heavy sediment load which has resulted in a very muddy bottom. There are no riffles within Oxley. When the water is clear, visitors can view minnows gar, catfish, perch, frogs, and turtles. Muskrats, beaver, mink, and river otters have been spotted along the banks.

One of the popular programs at Oxley is called Junior Naturalists, designed by staff naturalist Mary Seabourn for children ages 8-12. The theme for the month of April this year is Watersheds. There is one Blue Thumb team monitoring Coal Creek, south of Oxley in Tulsa. Mary and I decided to have the youngsters find out what macroinvertebrates live in Coal Creek. We would then have them compare their results to data for Spring Creek and construct hypotheses to explain differences, if any, they found. With advice from Candice Miller, we gathered the proper equipment and field guides to collect and identify the bugs.

Want to know the results? Check next month’s Blue Thumb newsletter.

Karen Harris
Blue Thumb Volunteer

From the Volunteer Coordinator

What is bankfull?

When you see a stream with water up to the tops of the banks, that is often thought of as a “bankfull” condition. However, in stream science, "bankfull" is usually defined a bit lower—at the normal high water line, often marked by where well-established perennial vegetation begins. So, when a stream is full to the brim, it may even be past bankfull! This is a timely subject for lots of places in Oklahoma as this, for many, has been a wet spring.

I have particularly been watching Polecat Creek in south Tulsa County. The stream I monitor, Coal Creek, between Jenks and Glenpool, flows into Polecat Creek and Polecat flows into the Arkansas River. Yesterday I did my stream monitoring, and Coal Creek at Morris Park was about two feet from being completely full. My monitoring location has an almost 90 degree bank on the left, then a gentle slope on the right, so as I made my way to the stream, I had to stop short of the normal monitoring spot by around seven feet. There was NO WAY to safely monitor at the beginning of my riffle*, so I did what Blue Thumb protocol asks us to do in a high water situation. I monitored from where I could safely reach the water. Because it was still raining, I did what had to be done outdoors and then I took the sample inside for completion.

I made it a point to drive past Polecat Creek going home, and I slowed down to check it out. Polecat Creek was at or over bankfull. Another few drops of water and Polecat would have been out of its banks. Apparently that did not happen, as I heard nothing of flood watches for yesterday evening, and there have been plenty of flood watches during April. It is a sight to see when a stream is carrying all the water it possibly can as it moves toward where it will empty into another stream or river.

The typical April in Tulsa County sees 3.6 inches of rain. April of 2025 received 10.99 inches of rain – much more than normal! Because I am interested in rocks, I will be slinking about the banks of Coal Creek once the waters submerge – because lots of things will have moved about during the high flow.

*My riffle did not exist anyway in the massive amount of water.

Shrumming Up the Net

It is fun to have a job with variety. I have had my seines in the back of the truck for a few days and laid them out in the sun to dry and air out. Sometimes seines can take on an unpleasant odor. Seines that have been allowed to airdry have a kind of nice, outdoorsy odor.

I had used my seines at “Watercress Fest” in south Delaware County on 4/26. I was invited to this event with the specific request to introduce attendees to the creatures that live in the headwaters of Snake Creek. To successfully do this, I needed seines for fish and a kicknet for the bugs. I had helpers for pulling the seine. It is necessary to have help, although I did once catch a green sunfish and a mosquitofish when doing this alone, but that story is for another day.

My take from the creek was small – four redbelly dace and two orangethroat darters, both males in breeding colors. And we caught a large crawdad and several other aquatic larval insects with the kicknet. It was enough to have an interesting display of life in the creek. Many visitors came by, and many enjoyed meeting the fish and the creek bugs. I too had a very good day.

Back to the dry nets – I took these from their places around the state truck and began the task of “shrumming” up the nets. This is simply the piling of one piece of seine over the nearest pole, over and over again until both poles are together and the net can be carried without wrapping around the carrier’s feet. I can never shrum up a seine without pausing to appreciate the many tasks I do that keep my job from being humdrum or routine.

Cheryl Cheadle
Blue Thumb Volunteer Coordinator

New “Water in Earth Systems” Guide Now Available from Project WET!

We’re excited to announce the release of Water in Earth Systems, the newest educator guide from Project WET! This updated curriculum features a blend of classic favorites and brand-new activities that illuminate the vital role of water in our planet’s interconnected systems. With 25 engaging, hands-on lessons covering everything from the water cycle to watershed dynamics, the guide is designed to help educators weave essential water science concepts into their classrooms in meaningful and memorable ways. Oklahoma’s own Project WET Coordinator, Jack Hilgert, contributed to the national development of this guide by reviewing and editing several activities to ensure their relevance and effectiveness for educators nationwide.

Accessing this outstanding resource is easy—just complete a Project WET training, offered either in person or online. Whether you're new to water education or looking to refresh your toolkit, the Water in Earth Systems guide will equip you with the tools to inspire curiosity, stewardship, and science literacy in students of all ages. Join us in helping young Oklahomans understand their connection to water and the world around them! Contact Education Coordinator Jack Hilgert for more information and to set up a Project WET or Project WILD training in your community.

Jack Hilgert
Blue Thumb Environmental Education Coordinator

From the QA Officer

Fish Collections!

It is nearing summer which means FISH COLLECTIONS!!!!!! We will be fishing in the Central Irregular Plains Ecoregion this summer: east Tulsa, Claremore, Bartlesville areas. If you’d like to join us on a fish collection, please contact me. I plan to start scheduling these soon and I can keep you in the loop if you have a particular day(s) or site you’d like to help with. Our timeframe is June 1 - mid October, but we usually try and end before college starts so we can utilize our summer intern. Here is a list of sites we have in mind to fish this summer:

Rain and Water Quantity in Watersheds

With ALL this rain a lot of the state has been receiving, be safe when monitoring. Know what is upstream of you, land use and watershed size. Maybe where you monitor hasn’t received much rain but upstream in the watershed has. If you monitor in a big watershed and in the middle or towards the end of that watershed, there might be a lot of water coming into that creek. If the land use is more impervious surfaces (city), then the creek level is usually more flashy, quick rise and quick fall. If you monitor in a more rural area, then the creek might keep rising for many hours or day(s) as it takes longer for rainwater to move through the ground and feed back into the nearest creek. Be mindful of this, watch/tune-in to the weather a couple hours and/or days before you monitor. We’d like you to monitor during rain events, see what non-point source pollution you might be able to detect, but most importantly we want you to be safe while monitoring.

Kim Shaw
Blue Thumb QA Officer

How Do Streams and Rivers Get Their Names?

How do streams and rivers get their names? Well, it depends. I poked around on the internet a bit to find out how some of Oklahoma’s streams and rivers got their names. In some cases, the source of the name is obvious because the name describes the stream or river. Examples include the Muddy Boggy, the Salt Fork and the Red River. Several streams in Oklahoma have Native American names. An example is the Neosho River, which is probably derived from an Osage word and means “clear, cold water.” The Medicine Lodge River is named for a large hut built by the Kiowa people who valued the river for its healing properties. Winter Camp Creek is named for a Cheyanne and Arapaho settlement that was located on its banks. Some streams are named after individuals. I assume James Fork, Lee Creek, Joe Creek and Fred Creek are all named after individuals, although some of their stories may be lost to time. We also have creeks in Oklahoma with French names, like Fourche Maline, which means “treacherous fork” and “Poteau,” which is the French word for “post.” Many rivers and streams are named after animals: Cow Creek, Bird Creek, Wolf Creek, Beaver River, Elk River, and Turkey Creek to name a few. Sometimes creeks are named after an event. According to Wikipedia, Skeleton Creek got its name in 1867 when settlers found the bones of Wichita Indians who had died in a cholera outbreak. Sometimes rivers are named according to where they originate, a place they flow through, or where they join another water body. The headwaters of the Arkansas River are in Colorado. The river flows through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas before its confluence with the Mississippi River. Intuitively, there is an Illinois River in Illinois, but the Illinois River in Oklahoma is apparently named after the Illinois Indians, even though the Illinois Indians were not regular inhabitants of the area. Rather than originating in Illinois, our Illinois River originates in northwest Arkansas. Some creek names sound like a story begging to be told. For instance, I would love to hear how Dirty Butter Creek got its name. Do you know how your creek was named?

Happy monitoring!

Rebecca Bond
Blue Thumb Director

Join us for a whole watershed experience in the beautiful Illinois River watershed near Tahlequah. We will travel through the entire watershed to learn how we impact our waters all while gaining valuable new resources for the classroom. Educators will receive 24 hours of professional development, new tools for the classroom, and an experience like no other! For questions, contact Jeri Fleming or Jacklyn Smittle. To register, click here and scroll down to select Riverology.

Maybe Friends of Blue Thumb is your favorite nonprofit, maybe it is a close second. Some nonprofits like to ask for money right before Christmas, some plead for funds right after Christmas. I have noticed an uptick of requests coming into my mailbox over the last couple of weeks, not from FBT, but lots of others with noble goals. FBT is a calm little nonprofit, rarely rocking the boat to get anyone’s attention. This is probably why we don’t have much money.

FBT accepts donations at all times of the year very happily. If you would like to make a gift (we like both large and small gifts) you can do so by sending a check to:

FBT

P.O. Box 58103

Oklahoma City, OK 73112

FBT is a small nonprofit organization that was formed primarily for the benefit of helping Blue Thumb volunteers effectively monitor and educate the public about protecting streams, rivers, and lakes. FBT does this primarily by providing small grants. If you would like more information, please reach out to Board president, Terrie Becerra.

• Did you know Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) can be forecast? Click here to explore the EPA's HAB forecasting dashboards.
• 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.

Oklahoma Conservation Commission

Oklahoma Conservation Districts

Project WET

Friends of Blue Thumb

Soil Health Program

Department of Environmental Quality

Macroinvertebrate ID Website