Happy Earth Day 2016!
Happy Earth Day! While it’s pretty much Earth Day every day for all of us at Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and everyone else working for environmental groups and casues throughout the world, April 22nd does indeed serve as a unique opportunity to raise awareness about our natural environment and resources.
Did you know that in addition to Earth Day, it’s also National Environmental Education Week? It started last Sunday and runs through tomorrow, April 23rd. National Environmental Education Week encourages and celebrates environmental learning through events and projects across the country. Events are led by formal and informal educators from various disciplines and include participants aged 1-100.
As you may already know, ESLC practices environmental education year-round through its Sassafras Environmental Education Center, or SEEC, at Turner’s Creek in Kennedyville, MD (Kent County). At SEEC, a child can master paddling a canoe while learning about John Smith, local watermen, and estuarine ecology. Activities such as digging potatoes from the garden and delivering them to the Kent County Food Bank provides a lesson in community awareness, soil ecology, and empathy. We want every child to deeply appreciate the need to live compatibly in the natural environment. To help achieve that, each year our educators provide every 2nd- to 10th-grade KCPS student with outdoor experiences that build upon and supplement the Maryland Environmental Literacy standards they are mastering in the classroom.
With the creation of our Shore Talks series, ESLC is now helping to provide an environmental education classroom for adults, too! By pairing experts from their respective fields with classrooms where they did not exist, residents can continue to learn about our Shore and the environment in which we must coexist with nature. Topics include oyster aquaculture, the health and history of the Chesapeake Bay, and the migration of Monarch Butterflies, among others.
So, on this Earth Day, take a minute to think about your relationship with the land and waters that connect all of us. Go outside and take a deep breath of the smog-free air we often take for granted. Get your hands dirty working in the yard, planting some flowers or a native tree. As always, we’ll be here, adhering to ESLC’s vision as best we can.
“Our vision for 2050 is an Eastern Shore where towns are vibrant and well defined; farms, forests, and fisheries are thriving and scenic; historic, natural, and riverine landscapes are maintained.”
Happy Earth Day!