April 22 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 in schools and communities around the United States as a way to call attention to environmental issues. According to the Earth Day Network, the occasion is now celebrated in over 190 counties.
With most of our country sheltering-in-place, we have an opportunity to really embrace Earth Day at home with our families. Hopefully, you have taken time over the last days to really slow down and appreciate nature around you. Let’s celebrate that with a special Earth Day! Plant a garden or create nature poetry. It can be a great day while safely staying within recommended shelter-in-place guidelines. Following are some other ideas to get you and your family in an Earth Day spirit.
Hold a family nature photo contest. Give the members of your family 24 hours to take nature photos from places nearby using their cell phones. Give simple prizes for the most creative photos. You can use an online photo service to create a book of the photos as a memento.
Explore your pollinator garden. Practice identifying and counting insects to get ready for the Great Georgia Pollinator Census on August 21 and 22. The project website at https://ggapc.org/ contains all you need to learn more about the pollinators in your garden.
Learn to identify the birds in your yard. For added fun learn their calls. Cornell’s bird lab has free resources on bird identification. Feeding birds is a wonderful family hobby. Get tips on now from UGA Extension Circular 976 at extension.uga.edu/publications.
Discover more about the trees in your yard. Can you identify them? The Arbor Day Foundation has a great website for tree identification. What role does each tree play in the wildlife ecosystem? Create some leaf rubbings to decorate your home. For more information, see UGA Extension Bulletin 987 on native trees and shrubs at extension.uga.edu/publications.
Organize your recyclables. If you don’t already recycle, spend some time creating an area in your home to place and organize your recyclables. Research where to take your recyclables locally. Does your trash pickup service also take recyclables? For more tips, see UGA Extension Bulletin 1050-2 on recycling at extension.uga.edu/publications.
Plan an Earth Day dinner. This is a tradition with my family each year — we choose a theme and plan dinner and activities around it. For example, plan a pollinator dinner choosing foods that need a pollinator. Strawberry shortcake is a great dessert for this theme! Other themes are foods grown underneath the earth’s crust like potatoes, radishes, sweet potatoes and onions. Or perhaps a spring greens dinner with different lettuces and salad toppings. Cooking together is a wonderful activity for stress relief. Decorate your table for the occasion and plan some relevant dinner conversation topics.
Whatever you decide to do, stay safe and enjoy the day!
For more information on Earth Day visit https://www.earthday.org/.
Becky is a Georgia Certified Beekeeper and works with community and school gardeners to increase beneficial insect habitat.She is the coordinator of the Great Georgia Pollinator Census, happening this year on August 19th and 20th, 2022.She is also part of UGA's Native Plants and Beneficial Insect Working Group.
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About the Great Georgia Pollinator Census. Here in South Georgia we are seeing a wealth of pollinators in July. Monarchs are in abundance. Last year by August there were very few pollinators around. Maybe a sliding date for the census might be more appropriate. Just a thought!!
Hi Bobbie, thanks for the comment. There is a method to our madness. We needed a time when something was blooming across the state and a time when schools could participate (we had over 130 schools participate in 2019). Spring is out for the schools because they don’t want a project that interferes with testing. For the pilot project, we did September and October and had a hurricane ruin one of the year’s counts. I know it isn’t ideal but I wanted you to know why we chose August. I look forward to seeing your counts this August!