Benzie Conservation District
  • Home
    • Events
  • About
    • Annual Reports
    • Benzie Natural Resource Assessment
    • BCD Policies
    • Board Directors & Meetings
    • Staff
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
    • Links
    • Contact Us
  • Aquatic Invasive Species
    • AIS Events
    • AISPP Resources
  • Programs & Services
    • Critical Dunes
    • District Shorts: Video Series
    • Education & Outreach >
      • Beach Clean Ups
      • Benzie: Plastic Awareness Collective
      • District Readers
      • EARTH DAY
      • Leave No Trace/Salmon in the Classroom
      • Nature Hikes
    • Forestry Assistance Program >
      • ATREP
      • FAP Form
      • Forestry Education & Media
      • Forestry Events
      • Forest Pests & Diseases
      • Forestry Referrals
    • Invasive Species
    • Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program
    • Natural Resources Conservation Services
    • Produce Safety
    • Seedling Sales
  • SEEDLING SALES
  • Benzie Waters
    • Benzie Watersheds Coalition
    • Platte and Betsie River Clean Sweeps
    • Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program
    • Watersheds
  • Store
    • Shipping Policy
  • Donations

Earth Day 2020

Picture

April 22 is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day!

​This year's theme is: CLIMATE ACTION. 
​
In 2020, we find ourselves coming together by staying at home because of a pandemic virus that is ravaging our world. It is a sobering time but also a time for reflection and dedication to protecting our precious resources and planet. Here's a great opportunity to help mitigate climate change from our corner of the earth.

Picture
Picture
What Can We Do During Stay-At-Home Order?

1. 
CHOOSE EARTH DAY IDEAS
{see lists & resources below}

2. 
PARTICIPATE ON WED, APRIL 22ND!
{Do your part with social distancing...take pictures...breathe fresh air!}

3.

SOCIAL POST PICS
to FB or IG w/hashtag:
#earthday2020
#earthdayathome
{or email to us!}


EARTH DAY IDEAS

Picture

Know Your H20: Earth Week Challenge

Many of us take the water flowing from our taps at home for granted. The average American uses 80-100 gallons of water per day. Living in the Great Lakes region, it’s hard to imagine life without water. 

How much water do you or your family use? Can you imagine what it would be like to be without clean water? 

​
Take the Alliance for the Great Lakes "Know Your H20 challenge." Track your household's water consumption for one day with their easy-to-use spreadsheet.

Clean water is more important now than ever! For the challenge, keep a log of how much water your household uses — download form by clicking on the button below:

KNOW YOUR H2O
  1.  Join Earth Day Network’s campaign to Protect Our Species.
  2. Join Earth Day Network’s campaign to End Plastic Pollution.
  3. Plant a tree or donate a tree through our Canopy Project.
  4. Join Earth Day Network’s campaign to create Foodprints for the Future.
  5. Visit a local park, river or beach and help clean it up.
  6. Use environmentally-friendly, non-toxic cleaning products.
  7. Replace inefficient incandescent light bulbs with efficient CFLs or LEDs. Reduce your carbon footprint by 450 pounds a year.
  8. Carpool, ride your bike, use public transportation or drive an electric or hybrid car (after the Great Pause). Reduce your carbon footprint by one pound for every mile you do not drive.
  9. Keep your tires properly inflated and get better gas mileage. Reduce your carbon footprint 20 pounds for each gallon of gas saved.
  10. Change your car’s air filter regularly.
  11. Teleconference instead of traveling. If you fly five times per year, those trips are likely to account for 75% of your personal carbon footprint.
  12. Stop using disposable plastics, especially single-use plastics like bottles, bags and straws.
  13. Recycle paper, plastic and glass. Reduce your garbage by 10% and your carbon footprint by 1,200 pounds a year.
  14. Donate your old clothes and home goods instead of throwing them out. When you need something, consider buying used items.
  15. Use cloth towels instead of paper ones.
  16. Change your paper bills to online billing. You’ll be saving trees and the fuel it takes to deliver your bills by truck.
  17. Read documents online instead of printing them.
  18. When you need to use paper, make sure it’s 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
  19. Set your office printer to print two-sided.
  20. Collect used printer, fax, and copier cartridges to recycle.
  21. Convince your school district or office building to choose reusable utensils, trays, and dishes in the cafeteria.
  22. Use reusable bottles for water, and reusable mugs for coffee.
  23. Bring reusable bags when you shop.
  24. Pack your lunch in a reusable bag.
  25. Organize to have healthy, locally-sourced food served at in your school district.
  26. Buy local food to reduce the distance from farm to fork. Buy straight from the farm, frequent your local farmers’ market, or join a local food co-op.
  27. Buy organic food to keep your body and the environment free of toxic pesticides. Support farmers and companies who use organic ingredients.
  28. Grow your own organic garden, or join a farm-share group.
  29. Reduce your meat consumption to curb carbon emissions from the livestock industry.
  30. Compost kitchen scraps for use in your garden — turning waste into fertilizer.
  31. Take a shorter shower and use a water-saving shower head.
  32. Fix leaky faucets and shower-heads.
  33. Run your dishwasher only when it’s full to save water and energy.
  34. Conserve water outdoors by only watering your lawn in the early morning or late at night. Use drought-resistant plants in dry areas.
  35. Wash your clothes only when necessary, use cold water and line dry.
  36. Form a “green team” at your office to find cost-effective ways to conserve resources and promote sustainability.
  37. Volunteer for a local environmental group and/or make a donation.
  38. Pull out invasive plants in your yard or garden and replace them with native ones.
  39. Turn off and unplug electronics you’re not using. This includes turning off your computer at night.
  40. Turn off lights when you leave a room.
  41. Install solar panels on your roof.
  42. Take the stairs instead of the elevator to save energy (and get exercise!).
  43. Move your heater thermostat down two degrees in winter and up two degrees in the summer to reduce your carbon footprint by 2,000 pounds.
  44. Lower the temperature on your water heater.
  45. Contact your utility company and find out about renewable energy options.
  46. Use energy-efficient appliances and electronics.
  47. Recycle batteries from small appliances and your electronics. Use rechargeable batteries instead!

EARTH DAY RESOURCES

H.O.M.E. Lessons about Great Lakes

Click here to learn more about the H.O.M.E. lessons offered through the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
Picture

H.O.M.E. Lessons about Great Lakes

Click here to learn more about the H.O.M.E.S. Home lessons offered through Michigan Sea Grant
Picture

Science & Nature Activities for Cooped Up Kids

Click here to find weekly hands-on activities and quests to explore nature and science from the Cornell Lab. 
Picture

Protect Our Species

Click here to learn more about conservation and biodiversity.
Picture

Project Learning Tree

Click here to learn about Earth Day activities through Project Learning Tree
Picture

Just for Kids!

Click here to find activities and information for kids from the U.S. Forest Service and the USDA!
Picture

End Plastic Pollution

Click here to learn about how this campaign helps people understand the impacts of plastic pollution on human and ecosystem health and how everyday actions can lessen the problem.
Picture

12 Nature Walk Ideas

Click here to learn about outdoor activities for the kids & family.
Picture

Go Wild: Things Your Kids Can Do Outside

Click here to find some really great activities from our friends at Harris Center for Conservation Education.

Picture
Picture

Weekly Online Events thru Global Oneness Project

Join us on a webinar at Global Oneness Project inviting students from around the world to participate in a Photo Contest about our home, Earth on the day AFTER Earth Day 2020.

Details on the contest are at https://www.globalonenessproject.org/document-your-place-submission-guidelines-and-rules. To join a webinar about the project on Thursday Apr 23 at 3pm EST use this zoom link https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_glwmvHumR-2Yq7lFUBHDng.

Share widely! For more information about Global Oneness Project, follow this link!

THE FIRST EARTH DAY
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
As we prepare to mark 50 years of Earth Day in 2020, let’s take a look at the last half-century of mobilization for action:
​
ORIGINS OF EARTH DAY
Earth Day 1970 gave a voice to an emerging public consciousness about the state of our planet — 
In the decades leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health.

However, the stage was set for change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries as it raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and the inextricable links between pollution and public health.
​
Earth Day 1970 would come to provide a voice to this emerging environmental consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement to put environmental concerns on the front page.

Location

Contact us

By Phone
231.882.4391

By Email
info@benziecd.org

By Mail
280 Benzie Boulevard
POB 408
Beulah, MI 49617

Contact individual staff members

​

follow us

Photo used under Creative Commons from Fibonacci Blue
  • Home
    • Events
  • About
    • Annual Reports
    • Benzie Natural Resource Assessment
    • BCD Policies
    • Board Directors & Meetings
    • Staff
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
    • Links
    • Contact Us
  • Aquatic Invasive Species
    • AIS Events
    • AISPP Resources
  • Programs & Services
    • Critical Dunes
    • District Shorts: Video Series
    • Education & Outreach >
      • Beach Clean Ups
      • Benzie: Plastic Awareness Collective
      • District Readers
      • EARTH DAY
      • Leave No Trace/Salmon in the Classroom
      • Nature Hikes
    • Forestry Assistance Program >
      • ATREP
      • FAP Form
      • Forestry Education & Media
      • Forestry Events
      • Forest Pests & Diseases
      • Forestry Referrals
    • Invasive Species
    • Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program
    • Natural Resources Conservation Services
    • Produce Safety
    • Seedling Sales
  • SEEDLING SALES
  • Benzie Waters
    • Benzie Watersheds Coalition
    • Platte and Betsie River Clean Sweeps
    • Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program
    • Watersheds
  • Store
    • Shipping Policy
  • Donations