Are you celebrating Earth Day every day? Sometimes it's hard to do it every day and in every way, but we can all take little steps that will have a lasting effect. Earth Day's a great day to buy a worm bin or start a backyard compost pile, plant a tree, sign up for a creek clean-up, or send a donation to an environmental organization.
Nature Conservancy
Sierra Club
Sacramento Valley Conservancy
California Oak Foundation
California Native Plant Society
When I was a kid growing up in Sacramento, I remember playing in the field next to my grandparents' house in the Arden area. The field had a creek, tall grasses, ladybugs, polliwogs, frogs, turtles and snakes. Then came the Alta Arden Expressway. The creek was dammed. Then came the developers. The field of my childhood, where I learned about bugs and flowers, cardboard forts and first kisses, is now a parking lot and more homes.
The other day I visited the Sacramento Valley Conservancy's Deer Creek Hills Project near the Rancho Murieta gated housing community, country club and golf course. I was very startled to see a turtle at Deer Creek Hills. Was it alive? Yes! Was it a real turtle just like the ones in my old field? Yes... only Deer Creek Hills is teeming with much more wildlife and unspoiled beauty than my nostalgia-blessed suburban field. Is this turtle safe? Probably, because it's living on protected land. Are developers itching to build new homes all around it? Is the pope Catholic?
I checked out my ecological footprint on the Earth Day website. Sadly, though I thought I was doing pretty well with conservation and recycling, they said if everyone lived like me, we'd need 4.4 earths to support them all.
ReplyDeleteThe turtle Angela photographed is a Western Pond Turtle, a native species in our area.
ReplyDelete