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Happy Earth Day!

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Happy Earth Day! Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world on April 22. The first Earth Day occurred in 1970. It is a day to celebrate the earth and how we can protect the environment. The earth is our home so let’s protect it!

The greatest threat to the environment is the loss of natural habitat and pollution. We can think of the earth as a glass sphere where everything is affected by any change that occurs inside that sphere. It can take many years to see that effect. There are many things we can do to help the earth. Consider planting flowers and trees that are native to your region. Check out these websites for lists of plants native to your area: www.oipc.info/plants-to-replace.html,  www.abnativeplants.com, https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/  and http://web4.audubon.org/bird/at_home/PlantNativeSpecies.html

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Even if you live in an apartment you can plant flowers in pots or perhaps participate in a community garden. Have fun with your kids making bug hotels using tin cans and paper straws. Play a game with your children to see who can come up with the most ideas to reduce energy usage.

Why should we care about the earth? As Doug Tallamy shared in Gardening for Life, “Losses to biodiversity are a clear sign that our own life support systems are failing. The ecosystems that support us - that determine the current capacity of our earth and our local spaces – are run by biodiversity. It is biodiversity that generates oxygen and clean water, creates topsoil out of rock, buffers extreme weather events like droughts and floods, pollinates our crops, and recycles the mountains of garbage we create every day.”

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