 The Ouachita Mountain (OM) Ecoregion occurs in west-central Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. This ecoregion is Oklahoma's wettest, receiving around 50" of rain per year. The ecoregion contains several mountain uplifts, making it Oklahoma's most mountainous ecoregion. The varied topography offers diverse habitats such as savannas, ravines, high ridges, bottomland forest, and small tracts of tallgrass prairie. The OM Ecoregion contains beautiful creeks and rivers including the Mountain Fork River, the Glover River, and the Kiamichi River. The Upper Kiamichi River Wilderness Area offers a fantastic opportunity to explore one of Oklahoma's most pristine rivers. The wilderness area encompasses over 10,000 protected acres and is a favorite of kayakers, fishermen, hikers, and birders. Streams in the OM Ecoregion are home to Ouachita shiners, orangebelly darters, southern brook lampreys, mountain madtoms, and leopard darters.
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Often, when entering a town, signs are posted to advertise organizations and activities in that town. Kiwanis, Rotary, Tree City, Purple Heart City, among others, are common. The Friends of Blue Thumb Board is wondering if you would like a sign to advertise your Blue Thumb volunteer work.
- One possible design for this sign accompanies this article. The sign would be 18” wide and 24” tall, about the size of a typical speed limit sign and made of reflective aluminum. Approximate cost would be $50/sign if we order in bulk.
- The Board would provide two signs to each monitoring team at no charge.
- Monitoring groups would receive the signs on their 3-year anniversary. Upon receiving the signs, the monitoring team will take a photo of their group for publication in the local paper along with an article about Blue Thumb. The Board will provide most of the content of the article. The monitoring team will provide names and additional background information about the group (for example, number of years monitoring, name of sponsoring group).
- The monitoring team will get permission from their city to post the signs and the town will install them. (you need to touch base with the correct city department probably before responding to this article if you feel excited about this possibility)
- Towns with one Blue Thumb monitoring site might want to place the signs near the entrances to the town. Towns with multiple sites might want to place the signs near the monitoring sites.
What the Board would like is your feedback. Are these signs a good idea? Would you like to install them in your town? Are you comfortable with the bulleted items above or have other recommendations? If overall feedback is positive, the Board will search for funding to purchase the signs. But we need your feedback!
Please send that feedback to Pete Grant, Friends of Blue Thumb (FBT) Board Member.
Peter Grant
FBT Board Member
NEEDED: Reusable Bags!
The Green Country Watersheds Coalition (GCWC) is in need of reusable bags for a major education effort to take place in the greater Tulsa Metro area this spring and summer. The goal of the effort is to reduce the number of plastic bags used by Tulsa shoppers.
Information about stream protection and the need to reduce single-use plastics will be placed inside each reusable bag and bags will be offered to shoppers free of charge. GCWC is hoping to receive donated bags to support this effort. Bags do not have to be BRAND NEW, but they do need to be unused. We will accept plastic, but we are hoping to get canvas or lightweight woven material. We do not care about the logos on the sides…. unless they are extremely NOT environmental.
Maybe you have some bags left from a previous event. Maybe you are ordering bags and you are willing to order an extra dozen. Maybe you know someone in sales who always has some bags with their logos on them. Our goal is to have 500 bags donated to us by Earth Day (April 22) 2026. Can you help us reduce plastic and forward conservation education??? Please reach out to Cheryl if you would like to help with this effort.
Fish Kill – South Tulsa County, Coal Creek
The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality will hold a local municipality responsible for the fish kill in Coal Creek on October 2, 2025. The fine will either be $10,000 or lowered to $5,000 if the responsible party chooses to fund a community improvement or environmental education project. A contractor unintentionally ruptured pipes carrying raw sewage during construction of a wastewater treatment plant. The high-flow incident caused a fish kill in Coal Creek from the construction site to the confluence with Polecat Creek south of Jenks.
Good news for Coal Creek: Blue Thumb volunteers and staff went to the stream on February 4 and seined. Fish are moving back into previously affected waters. An orangethroat darter, a redfin darter and three mosquitofish were collected during the brief seining effort. If the Blue Thumb team has time to squeeze in an extra fish collection this summer, we will assess Coal Creek again, even though Coal Creek was fished last summer. A second fish collection could help document the impacts of the fish kill.
Cheryl Cheadle
Blue Thumb Volunteer Coordinator
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