Make Every Day Earth Day

Spring in Texas is an exciting time. Although we usually have a fairly mild winter, there is something wonderful about warmer (but not too hot) temperatures, new life in our plant communities, and the return of migratory animals to raise their young. Spring makes me reflect on the beauty of nature and inspires me to renew my commitment to conservation. Almost like making New Year’s resolutions, I find myself saying “I want to be better about…” and “starting now, I’m going to make a point to…”.  I keep working to build good conservation activities into my routine and, just like my (MANY) New Year’s resolutions, I don’t always get it perfect every time but I’m making small steps in the right direction.

Well TODAY is Earth Day, and if you also feel inspired, I suggest you consider implementing one or more of these conservation-minded activities into your routine:

1. Get outside (and take someone with you)! In addition to protecting land, the TLC team strongly believes that we must help connect people to nature through our guided hikes, star parties, camping trips, and even our nature-based trivia nights. Conservation doesn’t happen if people don’t have a personal connection with the land, water, and wildlife in Texas. So join us for one of our upcoming events, or get outside on your own and experience why we are working to protect the land that provides viable agriculture, clean water resources, healthy wildlife habitat, and breathtaking open spaces. Even better, take someone with you! Help spread the love of nature and open space by bringing someone with you and (re)introducing them to the outdoors, especially children who will one day decide whether to support conservation.

2. Reduce the plastic pollution! Eliminating plastic completely is difficult, so I’m personally trying to find ways to minimize and avoid single-use plastic products in my life. Of course, I have a bunch of reusable grocery bags, and I keep reminding myself to put them back into the car, so I have them during my next shopping trip. Instead of bottled water or sodas I can bring my own water bottle or coffee cup with me when I leave the house and refill it throughout the day. Likewise, I have found it super easy to bring a reusable container to restaurants for leftovers, instead of a Styrofoam or plastic to-go box. I’m trying to do a better job of identifying plastic-free options at the grocery store – buying fresh fruits and vegetables that aren’t wrapped in plastic, asking the butcher for meat packaged in freezer paper instead of those on Styrofoam trays, and buying in bulk instead of single-serving foods. With our population growing every day, it’s going to be more important than ever that we minimize the amount of plastic waste going into our landfills.

3. Give back by cleaning up! It seems like there is so much litter blowing down the street, in parking lots, or even on our trails and at nature preserves, that we’re almost blinded from it and we walk right past it. We could all do a lot better job of picking up each piece of trash we see and making sure it gets discarded properly. On June 1, TLC is celebrating National Trails Day 2019 with a volunteer work day at our 121-acre Oak Cliff Nature Preserve in Dallas. Join us as we clean up trash and debris that blows in or comes in through the creeks. A group of TLC members and their friends also had their own pop-up trash clean-up a couple weeks ago along a stretch of road here in Austin as part of the popular #trashtag movement. We support efforts like this to keep Texas lands beautiful and remind everyone to stay safe while doing clean-ups.

4. Plant natives! A great way to help preserve our native flora — and our environment in general — is to plant native vegetation around our homes and businesses. When you landscape with native plants, not only are you likely to save money and resources by using less fertilizer, soil additives, and water, you are also helping to strengthen the complex web of connections linking native species and ecological processes in your local ecosystem. To see what native plants would be best for your area, check out the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s Native Plants Database to explore 11,172 documented plants native to Texas and North America.

5. Support TLC as a Monthly Steward! As a nonprofit organization, Texas Land Conservancy depends on donations to continue our conservation work of protecting the land, water, and wildlife of Texas. Without your help and the support of hundreds of other members, we would not be able to preserve the wonderful places we all love. Monthly giving provides TLC with a dependable income, helping us save paper, postage and resources. Monthly giving is the most cost-effective way to contribute to TLC in manageable amounts while making a lasting impact.

Happy Earth Day today and every day! Remember small acts have a ripple effect, and that is how we change the world!

*** The History of Earth Day ***

According to the Earth Day Network, the idea for a national day to focus on the environment came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes from Harvard as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land. April 22, falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, was selected as the date.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. By the end of that year, the first Earth Day had led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. “It was a gamble,” Gaylord recalled, “but it worked.”

Earth Day had reached into its current status as the largest secular observance in the world, celebrated by more than a billion people every year, and a day of action that changes human behavior and provokes policy changes.

Today, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more manifest every day.

Next year (2020) marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.