BLOG: Recycling Content and More for Earth Day

by Jennifer Wemhoff, Groundwater Foundation

Recycling is good for the planet - and for content! I looked back at the Earth Day post I wrote 10 years ago on the Groundwater Blog, and found most of it still applies today (I updated some website links for everyone's convenience). Caring for our Earth and groundwater is a never-ending job, and it's one that all of us can do.

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Original post from Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Earth Day is next week (April 22). Plan to celebrate by taking these simple steps to help care for our planet:

This little light of mine…
Replace incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. CFLs use 70-75% less energy than standard bulbs, and last for several years. You can also help save energy by turning off lights, computers, televisions, etc. when they are not in use. Get more information on the advantages of using CFLs.

Green it up!
Add some green to the planet by planting a tree. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that one acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four tons of oxygen, which is enough to meet the annual needs of 18 people. Learn more about the benefits of trees. Or plant a rain garden and help filter out contaminants from roofs and driveways. See how a rain garden can add beauty to your home and help prevent pollution.

Park the car
Leave the car at home! Carpool, take public transportation, walk, or ride your bike to work. Find information on ways to go green in your daily commute.

Attend an Earth Day celebration
Check local newspapers, television and radio stations for event announcements, or visit https://www.earthday.org/ to search for an event in your area.

Reduce, reuse, recycle
Try to go the entire day without throwing a single thing away (and don’t just postpone it until the next day). Use a reusable shopping bag for your grocery trip, use a tumbler instead of a disposable cup for your morning coffee, start a compost pile, and recycle plastic, aluminum, tin, steel, glass, paper, etc. Get more information about local recycling options.

Get outside and play
Enjoy all that nature has to offer! Take a walk, have a picnic, play a game, go fishing, take a hike – just get outside and interact with nature! Make sure to leave only your footprints behind.

Save a drop
Conserve water around your home. Install water-saving devices such as faucet aerators or low flow showerheads, upgrade to a low-flow toilet and water efficient appliances, and use drought-tolerant plants in your landscaping. Check out these easy water conservation tips or find out more about EPA’s WaterSense program.

Clean green
Switch to natural cleaning products. Skip the harsh chemical cleaners and opt for plant-based, natural cleansers. Find a cleaner buying guide. Or make your own cleaning products with simple ingredients like vinegar, lemon juice, and baking soda.

Tell a friend
Tell someone how they can help protect the planet! Share the tips above and get involved in local environmental protection efforts.

Support The Groundwater Foundation
Help support The Groundwater Foundation’s mission of educating the public to care about and for groundwater by:

• Becoming a Groundwater Foundation member
• Making a donation or supporting a specific program 
• Purchasing one of the Foundation’s educational products 

How do you plan to celebrate Earth Day? What steps have you taken in your daily life to help protect the planet?

BLOG: 6 Ways to Protect Groundwater on Earth Day

by Jennifer Wemhoff, The Groundwater Foundation

Earth Day is once again nearly upon us. If you're looking for ways to take action to protect the earth, look no further than protecting your groundwater.

Groundwater is an important part of the water cycle. Nearly half of the U.S. uses it as drinking water, and it's an important component of agriculture and helping feed the world. Groundwater is the environmental bottom line - everything that happens on the surface of the earth can end up in groundwater.

So this Earth Day, think about changes you can make in your every day life to help protect and conserve groundwater. Here are some ideas:

1. Learn more. Find out more about your drinking water source. See if it's groundwater, surface water, or a combination of the two. If you have a private well, find out the last time the well water was tested.

2. Check out current protection efforts. See what might already be happening in your community. Find out if there's a wellhead protection plan in place or a Groundwater Guardian team. (If there's no team in your community, now's a great time to get one together)

3. Conserve water throughout your home. Limit showers to 5 minutes, only run full loads of dishes and laundry, check for leaky water fixtures and repair them, don't let the water run while brushing your teeth or shaving.

4. Conserve water in your yard. Only water plants when necessary, and use drought-tolerant plants. Add mulch to flower beds and around trees to retain water. When watering your lawn, water deeply, but infrequently. If you have a sprinkler system, add a rain sensor.

5. Manage chemicals responsibly. Be sure to follow label instructions when applying fertilizer and pesticides to your yard. Always dispose of leftover paints, oils, and other chemicals properly and NEVER dump them onto the ground.

6. Tell others. Get your neighbors on board with making changes to their watering practices, talk with your office mates about ways to reduce water use in the office, recruit Green Sites in your community, and get things started in your community.

Groundwater is important. So on Earth Day, and every day, let's keep it clean!

BLOG: Groundwater Guardians Go Big on Earth Day

by Sara Brock, The Groundwater Foundation

The Groundwater Foundation’s Groundwater Guardian Program, launched in 1994, has teams across the United States from California to the Carolinas.  Year round, the teams work to increase awareness and education on groundwater issues and on special occasions, like this Saturday’s Earth Day, they get to go big.  Here are 5 communities using Earth Day to bring a little light to this underground resource.

1) Hamilton to New Baltimore, Ohio

Hamilton to New Baltimore’s Groundwater Consortium plans and implements an entire Earth Day Celebration Butler County aimed at increasing public awareness of local groundwater protection efforts.  By collaborating with local environmental groups and educators, they are able to provide over 25 exhibits and demonstrations of the area’s groundwater and surface water protection programs.

2) Lincoln, Nebraska

Lincoln’s Groundwater Guardian team is one of 73 sponsors of the Lincoln Earth Day event.  Schools, private businesses, government offices, and scientists are represented at various booths at this event with local food, music, and speakers. Check out the line-up here: http://www.lincolnearthday.org/ 

3) Valparaiso, Indiana 

The team in Valparaiso is hosting an informational booth at the Northwest Indiana Earth Day Celebration.  As regular presenters at this fair, they are prepared with educational materials and reusable water bottles for the over 2500 people expected to attend this year. If you live in the area, you can even stop by and pick up a rain barrel or compost bin for your home!  Find out more here: http://portercountyrecycling.org/

4) Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin  

Moving away from the fairs and festivals, the Chippewa Falls Groundwater Guardian team puts on a targeted program that, while is still associated with the city’s Earth Day Festivities, provides volunteers with a deeper understanding of and chance to experience groundwater protection in their area.  They do this by attaching “Dump No Waste, Drains to River” buttons on catch basins and illuminating the issue of contamination and drainage in informational sessions before and after. 

5) Central Regional Groundwater Protection Planning Committee, Illinois

The Groundwater Guardian team at the Central Regional Groundwater Protection Planning Committee keeps things running through the weekend with their Clean Water Celebration. Celebrating their 25th anniversary as one of the largest clean water festivals in the world, this year is made extra special by keynote speaker Dr. Jacqueline Quinn, an engineer, inventor, and payload manager for NASA.  Check out the schedule and the speakers here: http://sunfoundation.org/

BLOG: Change for Change: The Well Project

by Sunni Richardson, Director of Discipleship, First Lutheran Church, Lincoln, Nebraska

Did you know 663 million people in the world live without clean water? That's nearly 1 in 10 people worldwide, or twice the population of the United States. The majority live in isolated rural areas and spend hours every day walking to collect water for their family. Not only does walking for water keep kids out of school or take up time that parents could be using to earn money, but the water often carries diseases that can make everyone sick. Access to clean water means education, income and health, especially for women and kids. 

The Creation Care Team at First Lutheran Church (FLC) made water the focus of keeping care of the earth in the forefront all year long, with the goal of raising $2500 for a water well for a village somewhere in the world. The well project was kicked off  at the annual Earth Day Celebration in April 2016.

The weeklong Celebration included water education with Sunday school students, First Learning Center's preschool students, and a congregational celebration event.

The week before the event, the Creation Care team met with the Sunday School children to make rain sticks, talk about the importance of conserving water, and why we were going to help build a well somewhere in the world. The children also learned how to make the sound of rainstorm using their hands and feet, and led the congregation in the rain sounds during worship. Throughout the week, Creation Care members met each day with First Learning Center Preschool children. The 3-5 year-olds learned about water conservation, enjoyed hands-on water activities, and planted a straw bale garden in First Lutheran’s Certified Outdoor Classroom. Children were invited to take a water jug home and help with the “Change for Change” Project. 

Adults were brought up to speed on the well project through a Sunday morning adult forum. They learned a village well may serve as many as 500 people. The well not only provides clean water, it opens the door allow people to work, farm, and go to school. Clean water is one of the most powerful ways to create change in the world. When a community gains access to clean water, everything changes. Women and children don’t spend hours gathering water. Communities are healthier. Together, they build stronger economies and a future filled with hope. 

On April 24, 2016 little ones with parents, adults of all ages, and youth abandoned their regular Sunday School class time and came to the Activity Center, which was turned into a water lab for the day! The place was buzzing with conversation ranging from worries about the Ogallala Aquifer to water efficient gardening ideas, from the safe disposal of medications and chemicals to plastics contaminating our oceans. Hands-on activities, including carrying jugs of water around a track set up indoors, had everyone learning about the importance of protecting and conserving water. 

The well project was also launched, with a plastic swimming pool serving as our well. The coins tossed in the well and dollar bills in a jug kicked off raising the $2500 needed to build a well through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Good Gifts program. Water jugs were available for families to take home to collect loose change as part of a “Change for Change” campaign. 

Fund were also raised for the well project through FLC's Noisy Offering on the 1st Sunday of the month. The Noisy Offering is a way for kids to give, see, feel and hear their offering at work! (Watch and listen to the noise these kids are happy to make with their offering! The Noisy Offering isn't just for kids - note the number of adults passing coins to the children.)

So what happened? 

• We learned we are lucky to have easy access to clean water. In other places around the world, people have to spend 6+ hours each day walking to and from their only available water source. 
• We learned through hands on projects the importance of caring for God’s creation, treating the earth with respect and conserving our natural resources. 
• We kept people talking about the project and about water through newsletter articles, Facebook posts and displays. 
• We made our goal! The well is a reality! 
• And then – donations kept coming in. We are building a second well! 

We celebrate the generosity of the congregation, the opportunity to partner with the ELCA Good Gifts program knowing the dollars raised will indeed be used to build a well, the joy and change the well will bring a village, and the wonder and majesty of God’s creation. 

Sunni Richardson is the Director of Discipleship at First Lutheran Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. Learning, serving and praying are the primary focus of Sunni's call, and she likes helping others discover their potential and use their talents. She is known for stretching people out of their usual comfortable places so they can experience new life. Reach her at sunni@flclinoln.org.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the view of The Groundwater Foundation, its board of directors, or individual members.

Earth Day Resolutions

by Jamie Kelley, Pioneers Park Nature Center

April means rain showers, morel mushroom hunting, spring cleaning, early season flowers blooming, goslings hatching, prescribed burns on the prairie, and celebrations of Earth Day and Arbor Day. To me, all of these things are signs of spring. Signs that the winter months have passed and the warmer weather and longer days are upon us. Windows are open letting in fresh air and sunshine, work is being done in our lawns and gardens, and our porches and patios are filled with friends and family, spring has arrived. 

Is there something that you look forward to each spring, something that tells you, spring is here? 

From gardens to goslings, all things spring has got me thinking. If this season brings so much newness and we are celebrating Earth Day, why not have springtime be a time of year to evaluate our sustainable goals? Our homes and gardens get spruced up, maybe our goals should too.  

Let’s make an Earth Day Resolution! You know, like a New Year’s resolution but one that is good for the earth. Start with something you’ve been wanting to do, such as adding a rain barrel to your home, or planting native plants that attract pollinators to your garden and use less water. Start small if that works best for you, and make it your sustainable goal for this spring, make it your Earth Day Resolution. 

So as you see more and more signs of spring, let that be a reminder to look at what you can do, what is that one thing you will do in your life to help move towards achieving a more sustainable lifestyle. Share your Earth Day Resolution with your friends and family, and together, let’s make our lives more sustainable this spring!

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Jamie Kelley is a Naturalist at Pioneers Park Nature Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, which includes 668 acres of tallgrass prairie, woodlands, wetlands and a stream. Since 1963 the Nature Center has served the Lincoln area as an environmental education center and wildlife sanctuary. Eight miles of hiking trails wind through various habitats and take visitors past non-releasable raptor exhibits, as well as bison, elk, and white-tailed deer.

How will you celebrate Earth Day?

Earth Day is next week (April 22). Plan to celebrate by taking these simple steps to help care for our planet:

This little light of mine…
Replace incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. CFLs use 70-75% less energy than standard bulbs, and last for several years. You can also help save energy by turning off lights, computers, televisions, etc. when they are not in use. Visit http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls for more information on the advantages of using CFLs.

Green it up!
Add some green to the planet by planting a tree. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that one acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four tons of oxygen, which is enough to meet the annual needs of 18 people. Learn more about the benefits of trees here: http://www.arborday.org/trees/benefits.cfm. Or plant a rain garden and help filter out contaminants from roofs and driveways. See how a rain garden can add beauty to your home and help prevent pollution by visiting http://www.groundwater.org/ta/raingardens.html.

Park the car
Leave the car at home! Carpool, take public transportation, walk, or ride your bike to work. Go to http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/commuting/index.html for information ways to go green in your daily commute.

Attend an Earth Day celebration
Check local newspapers, television and radio stations for event announcements, or visit www.earthday.net to search for an event in your area.

Reduce, reuse, recycle
Try to go the entire day without throwing a single thing away (and don’t just postpone it until the next day). Use a reusable shopping bag for your grocery trip, use a tumbler instead of a disposable cup for your morning coffee, start a compost pile, and recycle plastic, aluminum, tin, steel, glass, paper, etc. Get more information about recycling here: http://earth911.com/recycling/.

Get outside and play
Enjoy all that nature has to offer! Take a walk, have a picnic, play a game, go fishing, take a hike – just get outside and interact with nature! Make sure to leave only your footprints behind.

Save a drop
Conserve water around your home. Install water-saving devices such as faucet aerators or low flow showerheads, upgrade to a low-flow toilet and water efficient appliances, and use drought-tolerant plants in your landscaping. Check out these easy water conservation tips: http://www.groundwater.org/kc/easywaystoconserve.html, or find out more about EPA’s WaterSense program at http://www.epa.gov/watersense/.

Clean green
Switch to natural cleaning products. Skip the harsh chemical cleaners and opt for plant-based, natural cleansers. Visit http://www.thegreenguide.com/buying-guide/all-purpose-cleaners for a cleanser buying guide. Or make your own. Check out http://housekeeping.about.com/cs/environment/a/alternateclean.htm for an article about how to make your own cleaning products with simple ingredients like vinegar, lemon juice, and baking soda.

Tell a friend
Tell someone how they can help protect the planet! Share the tips above and get involved in local environmental protection efforts.

Support The Groundwater Foundation
Help support The Groundwater Foundation’s mission of educating the public to care about and for groundwater by:

• Becoming a Groundwater Foundation member (http://www.groundwater.org/au/membership.html)


• Making a donation or supporting a specific program (http://www.groundwater.org/shop/products.asp?cat=23)


• Purchasing one of the Foundation’s educational products (http://www.groundwater.org/shop/default.asp),


• Using GoodSearch (see http://groundwaterfoundation.blogspot.com/search/label/GoodSearch for more information)

How do you plan to celebrate Earth Day? What steps have you taken in your daily life to help protect the planet?