Celebrating Earth Day

Local students participate in environmentally friendly activities

By Danielle Frost

April 29, 2014 12:00 am

Life

Second-grade students at Grass Valley Elementary participate in an insect inventory during Earth Day.

Skyridge Middle School Principal Aaron Smith and Associate Principal Clint Williams plant Camas lilies during the school's rain garden dedication on Earth Day. The project was a collaboration between parents, students, administrators, and donations from the community and businesses.

Skyridge Middle School students celebrate after learning their school had been named a Level Three Green School, one of only five statewide.

Grass Valley Elementary first-grade teacher Jennifer Sanchez points out a bird to her students during a nature walk on Earth Day. The students wrote down their observations of different insects, plants and animals seen during the walk.

Cape Horn-Skye fourth-grader Samantha Mederos, plants a Western hemlock sapling using a recyclable carton that was planted with the tree. The biodegradable carton provides protection to the tree's roots as it grows.

Earth Day’s first organizer and chair of the nonprofit Earth Day Network is Camas High School graduate Denis Hayes. Hayes has received the national Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Public Service, as well as the highest awards bestowed by the Sierra Club, the Humane Society of the United States, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Council of America, the American Solar Energy Society, and the Commonwealth Club, among others. Time Magazine selected Hayes as one of its “Heroes of the Planet.”

The first events on April 22, 1970, included 2,000 colleges and universities, roughly 10,000 primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other environmental laws soon followed. Earth Day Network now works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to, “broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement.” More than one billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.

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