Make Earth Day, every day!

WE ARE RESCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, MAY 12, SAME TIME, SAME PLACE!
EARTH DAY IS EVERY DAY, AND THIS WILL BE A MOTHER EARTH DAY!

(We rescheduled from April 21 due to heavy storms, to May 12 for the safety of our Guests and Participants)

This all-day extravaganza offers engaging activities that celebrate the values of sustainability, community and fun! The festivities include:

• Sea oat planting and dune restoration COMPLETED!
  

WE WOULD LIKE TO OFFER A DEEP AND WARM THANK YOU TO THE CITY DEPT. OF PARK AND RECREATION FOR DONATING AND OVERSEEING THE PLANTING OF 1,500 SEA OATS AT THE FRONT OF HUGH TAYLOR BIRCH STATE PARK. ALONG WITH THE EFFORTS OF THE GIRLS SCOUTS OF AMERICA, SEA TURTLE OVERSIGHT PROTECTION VOLUNTEERS, PARK VOLUNTEERS AND HANDS ON BROWARD, ALL OF THESE PLANTS WERE INSTALLED AND NOW HAVE A NEW HOME! THANK YOU THANK YOU!

• A variety of organic and vegan food
• Ecologically-focused workshops
• Activities for Kids and Adults all day
• Volunteer opportunities -- Sea turtle rescue and more
• Free giveaway of 100 native trees (to volunteers of the Dune Restoration)
  
• Live entertainment - featuring Teri Catlin, the Didgeridoo Band, and a sunset Drum Circle
• Educational displays by local sustainable businesses and organizations
• Free water saving Shower head Exchange

Brought to you by:

SEA TURTLE OVERSIGHT PROTECTION

For decades, the sea turtles that utilize our Endangered Habitat beaches have succumbed to an abrupt increase in urban lighting along our coastline. For decades, hatchlings have become increasingly disoriented due to urban lighting. Good efforts made by organizations such as NOVA, who serve the vital role of marking thousands of nests laid by incoming mother sea turtles every year, have helped but have not been enough to deter the increase in sea turtle hatchling mortality - a very serious situation.

In the course of SIX years, the grass-roots organization Sea Turtle Oversight Protection has worked to monitor and rescue hatchlings that disorient away from the ocean. In these years S.T.O.P. has recovered over 25,000 baby sea turtles into the ocean. As more volunteers serve this cause, this yield has increased each year. Despite these great efforts, only 30% of the sea turtle nests can be covered. The sea turtles nesting in our area need more volunteers to help.

Please support Sea Turtle Oversight Protection today and consider Volunteering. You can also Donate to this vital cause. These are real lives being saved and they need all of our help. 

 Come to Earth Day Every Day and learn how to Volunteer!

On behalf of Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, we would like to extend a tremendous THANK YOU to the City of Ft. Lauderdale for kindly donating up to 1,000 protected Sea Oats to Hugh Taylor Birch State Park for an extensive Dune Restoration project taking place along A1A Boulevard. We would also like to thank the Friends of Hugh Taylor Birch State Park for adding an additional 500 plants to this wonderful project. Thank you!

The First Earth Day - April 22, 1970

We only have one earth, so we need to take care of her. That's what Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin believed. He was disturbed that an issue as important as our environment was not addressed in politics or by the media, so he created the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended festivities that day. It was a truly astonishing grassroots explosion, leading eventually to national legislation such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Decades have passed, accomplishments have been made, environmental depreciation has continued. By continuing the legacy of Earth Day, as first celebrated on that long ago Spring, we continue to extend a view to our human kind of the unprecedented need to recognize the larger biological organism of which we are a part - not just our bodies, but our local environments and all of the creatures that co-exist within them, our larger bioregions, our continents, our oceans and ultimately, our living world of ancient magnificence.

These are who we honor and raise awareness for on Earth Day:

We share a biological legacy. We share a world of such rich, diverse life! Human beings, having the most far-reaching ability to affect our environments, bear a huge responsibility to show the value of this life, living, vibrant, tangible and dear, to our children - and then to their children. Let us make Earth Day Every Day in our lives today, and instil this in the lives of our children, so that they may also know these other living infants during their own lifetimes - lest they become a memory of their parents and grandparents...

(left to right: Highly ENDANGERED Leatherback sea turtle (FL), ENDANGERED FL Scrub Jay, ENDANGERED FL Panther, ENDANGERED FL Gopher Tortoise, ENDANGERED Sharks (representation), ENDANGERED Wood Stork, Human infant of such precious potential!)

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