Friday, April 21, 2006

Barbara Martin Says Earth Day Should Frighten You

I agree. Here's her timely blog post.

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?


2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:53 PM

    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.

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  2. Anonymous3:17 PM

    The turtle Angela photographed is a Western Pond Turtle, a native species in our area.

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