Blue Thumb Program
Education Program
The Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC) is the technical lead agency for Oklahoma’s nonpoint source pollution management program. Nonpoint source pollution -- the pollution that originates from a variety of sources, both rural and urban -- can best be reduced through education. The Commission’s Water Quality Education group works to protect streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and groundwater, by educating the citizens of Oklahoma on actions that can be taken to reduce our impacts on our important water resources.
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Blue Thumb, as the education arm of OCC’s Water Quality Division,works to connect Oklahoma’s citizens with the natural world. In this photo, Blue Thumb volunteers get up close and personal with their local stream. Oklahoma is blessed with beautiful lakes, streams, and wetlands. Protecting these resources ensures us safe drinking water for the future, care of our wildlife, and a place to rest and recreate. People who gain an understanding of what happens beneath the water’s surface tend to make a commitment to protecting water resources. |
Educational activities take place across the state of Oklahoma, and are designed both for specific groups and general audiences. Some of the successful efforts that have taken place over the last two years include:
- Logging Workshops for landowners and timber harvest professionals to encourage environmentally sound tree removal and reduce soil erosion.
- Poultry Litter Management Workshops for landowners and poultry producers to offer alternatives and/or best management practices to land application of poultry waste in sensitive watersheds to reduce runoff into streams and lakes.
- No-till Farming Workshops for farmers trying to reduce soil erosion and spend less money on intensive soil preparation activities through the use of no-till methods.
- Development of three permanent outdoor classrooms for nature and science education -- Blue Thumb Educators, in conjunction with the local conservation districts and generous sponsors, have created outdoor learning centers in Latimer, Adair, and Cherokee Counties.
- Best Management Practice Tours for local landowners and other interested citizens in areas of priority watershed projects. These “BMP” tours allow people to see which agricultural practices best work to protect streams, rivers, and lakes from nutrient and sediment pollution.
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| Two young scientists hone their observational skills, have fun, and test water on beautiful Flint Creek in participation with the Blue Thumb Program. |
The Blue Thumb Education Program also uses a corps of volunteers who are primarily involved in:
- Stream and wetland monitoring
- Groundwater screening and
- Providing nonpoint source pollution prevention educational presentations.
Across the state, there are over 90 streams that are currently being monitored by Blue Thumb volunteers.
Volunteers come in all ages and from all walks of life. Middle and high school students often work with science teachers, 4-H leaders will choose monitoring as a group project, farmers and ranchers will want to gain data on how the streams that cross their land are doing, and retired professionals find a way to use their skills in the Blue Thumb Program.
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A critical component of the Blue Thumb Education Program is helping citizens to understand the value of riparian areas—the zone of natural vegetation along the banks of a stream or the shore of a lake. |
Blue Thumb educational activities—whether they are for a rural landowner group or for an urban civic club—touch on key issues for all. Some of these key points are:
- Nonpoint source pollution comes from lots of places—lawn chemicals, freshly plowed or overgrazed pastures, leaking automobiles, worn out septic systems—but people can be educated and motivated to do their part to reduce their “personal” pollutant load.
- Sediment is the number one pollutant of Oklahoma’s waters. Whether it is coming from a highway improvement project, a new suburban housing addition, or a timber operation, when people accelerate erosion, sediment can clog streams, smother habitat, and contribute to flooding. Urban or rural, agency or back yard, help is available to reduce sediment pollution.
- Streams left in a natural state—with their floodplains and natural vegetation along the banks—can function to not only route water, but be a home for fish and a corridor for wildlife.
More Blue Thumb Information is available by calling 918.367.9548 or 405-522-4738.