N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance Out and About!

Earth Day at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, 4/18): N.C. DPPEA had a table under the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources tent during the Earth Day Festivities at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. The weather was fabulous and we were lucky to be surrounded by a lot of other great booths. The staff answered questions on recycling in the state, quizzed festival goers with some “Trivial Pursuit: Recycling Edition” cards, and put on hundreds of Dottie Bottle tempory tattoos on any Recycle Guys fan.

IBM Earth day (RTP, 4/20): N.C. DPPEA had a booth at the IBM Earth Day celebration. Participants played the “put it in the bin” game and also answered some recycling trivia to win a RE3.org bottle opener or set of coasters!

NCSU Earth Day (NC State’s campus, 4/22): RE3.org battled strong wind and falling tree branches with our table at N.C. State’s Earth Day festival on the brickyard. Hundreds of Wolfpack students stopped by our table to check out what RE3.org was all about and found out that we are on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

UNC-Charlotte Earth Day (Charlotte, 4/22): The Recycle Guys’ Dottie Bottle made a guest appearance at the UNC-Charlotte Earth Day celebration. It’s hard to resist Dottie’s charm and many people clamored for a picture. Luckily, Dottie’s no stranger to fame and looked fabulous in each shot.

On Earth Day, I took my nearly two -year-old son for a hike on the North Carolina Botanical Garden's Streamside Trail. He LOVED the flat stream bank where he could explore the sand, pebbles, and critters. We felt the soft moss on the shady slope, talked about ferns, and marveled at the splash of a rock or two that somehow made their way into the water.

Laura Webb Smith

Columbus County Arbor Day Celebration

The cities of Chadbourn, Tabor City, and Whiteville along with the N.C. Museum of Forestry and Southeastern Community College celebrated Arbor Day on Wednesday, April 22 on the college campus. The celebration was free and open to the public. The N.C. Division of Forest Resources was on hand to give away free tree seedlings.

The celebration included an awards presentation by the N.C. Division of Forest Resources as well as several special presentations. Whiteville was recently designated a Tree City USA, and recertifications of this designation for Chadbourn and Tabor City were also presented. Southeastern Community College has been designated a Tree Campus USA and this was presented to Randy Britt, chair of the college’s Board of Trustees. The dignitaries from the participating cities and the college participated in a special tree planting on the college campus.

Tree City USA is a powerful force for the promotion of tree care and urban forestry. According to the National Arbor Day Foundation, “The Tree City USA program has caught the imagination of citizens, elected officials and urban tree professionals. Over 2,800 communities now fly the flag of accomplishment, a composite area that is home to some 107 million Americans.”

To date, Southeastern Community College and Duke University are the only higher education institutions in North Carolina to be named a Tree Campus USA college or university. Tree Campus USA, a new national program launched by the Arbor Day Foundation, honors colleges and universities and the leaders of the campus and surrounding communities for promoting healthy urban forest management and engaging the campus community in environmental stewardship. John Robards, instructor for Forest Management Technology, and his students were instrumental in earning this special designation for the college.

Earth Day at the Schiele Museum, Gastonia

I volunteered for Earth Day at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia, NC, and was able to get some great pictures. The first one is kind of self explanatory. Beautiful children celebrating a beautiful world. Then we have a young man sporting a recycled hat, made out of newspaper. It helped in the drizzle that dampened the day, but not our spirits! The next is of children learning about creatures in the creek, and the importance of water free of pollutants. It was also a great adventure full of fun. I hope you share these photos on your site, and encourage people to visit this wonderful museum.--Monica Williams.

Rain Gardening in Henderson County!

On April 18, we had a backyard raingarden workshop, sponsored by the Henderson County Cooperative Extension Service and the Mud Creek Watershed Restoration Project. Participants learned how to site, design, and install a raingarden in a backyard setting, and received how-to literature to take home. Then they helped install a demonstration raingarden (including a rainbarrel, with overflow directed into the raingarden) at the Edneyville public library, in Henderson County. Everyone enjoyed being outside, and the comaraderie of the group made the work fun as well as informative.

Diane Silver, Mud Creek Watershed Coordinator; Extension Agent, Natural Resources and Environmental Education, NC Cooperative Extension Service, Henderson County Center

Piedmont Earth Day Fair

Fourth annual Piedmont Earth Day Fair draws record crowd of 7,000 to learn more about environmentally friendly habits.

Winston-Salem, NC - A record crowd of approximately 7,000 people attended the fourth annual Piedmont Earth Day Fair on Saturday, April 18, 2009 on the campus of Wake Forest University. The Fair included 140 booth spaces representing over 120 exhibitors. Activities included five panel discussions, nine demonstrations, a stationary green car parade, green jobs booth, 12 children’s activities, entertainment all day on the main stage, an all-natural food court and more. Generous sponsors, 150 volunteers and sunny, warm weather helped make the day a success.

The fourth annual Piedmont Earth Day Fair was a free, “zero-waste challenge” event. “Zero-waste challenge” refers to the goal of managing materials such that the waste generated at the event will be as close to zero as possible. This is done via recycling management and guidelines on exhibitor items allowed at the event. In total there were only two bags of trash generated from this large event. The remainder of what would have been trash was recycled or composted.

The 2009 Piedmont Earth Day Fair, presented by Piedmont Environmental Alliance (PEA), is the largest Earth Day event in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The mission of PEA is to facilitate environmental sustainability in the Piedmont Triad community through education, networking, and outreach. PEA hopes to inform children and adults how to make sustainable choices – choices that create a positive impact on the Earth.

Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, Corolla

These three junior volunteers visited the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education in Corolla. Here they are checking on the worm composting bins. After they left the center, they went to their Grandma's and helped install a rain barrell!

National Environmental Education Week and Earth Day in N.C.

It's been a record year for Environmental Education Week and Earth Day Events in North Carolina. Program providers and individuals from around the state are sharing news and photos of their events and experiences.

Since 2004, the National Environmental Education Foundation, a private, congressionally authorized non-profit organization dedicated to the strategic advancement of environmental literacy and education, has coordinated the implementation of National EE Week, which occurs the week preceeding Earth Day. This year, the event was sponsored by Walmart with Canon as a contributing sponsor.

The N.C. Office of Environmental Education is promoting EE Week and Earth Day-related programs and events statewide in April using its Web site, www.eenorthcarolina.org. On the Web site, individuals can use an online calendar to see the state’s environmental education activities. Visitors can search for any Environmental Education Center in the state, and teachers can search for environmental education resources to use in the classroom tailored to different ages and subjects.