Earth Day Lessons Copyright 2006 forestwonderer.com

Lets start with some history of earth day. This special day was created April 22, 1970. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin was an advocate of preservation and conservation of natural resources. He believed everyone should be aware of environmental issues. He was the driving force to ban the use of DDT pesticides in the United States. DDT use is the blame for certain wildlife almost becoming extinct. For example the bald eagles almost become a memory because they would eat fish tainted with DDT. This caused their eggs to become thin-shelled. When eagles would lay the eggs in their nest it would break upon impact killing the young. DDT is still used in other countries to fight malaria. Senator Nelson died in 2005. This great man will always be known as the father of earth day.

Since then, this special day is always celebrated on April 22 every year. There is Earth Day activities that both grown-ups and children do through school and other organizations. It was always the hope that not just this day should conservation and preservation practices be done but everyday. Like insuring that we have clean water, air, and soil. Everyone can become involved by recycling, conserving water and driving fuel-efficient vehicles. Recently some Sport Utility Vehicles have been criticized to be a heavy fuel using polluter. One being the Hummer. US government officials have announced that vehicle fuel mileageand emissions standards are going to be tightening up in the near future.

Also more incentives for businesses to use biofuel and biomass are coming out of state and federal governmental offices. Here in Wisconsin, recently a large dairy farm built an anaerobic digester. This complex operation traps the methane gas that comes off of manure and converts it into biogas. This trapped fuel is then used to turn a power generator to create electric power. Also wind turbine generators or wind farms are being built.

Recently this spring after the snow had melted in northern Wisconsin we were going to a wildlife refuge area to photograph waterfowl on their migratory path back north. There is a road that travels next to the over 1000 acre waterway. For the 2 mile stretch along the road there was a lot of garbage in the ditches. It was quite disturbing to see how people treat this wildlife refuge. We got permission from the Department of Natural Resources and Forestry to clean this area up. When we got done cleaning the area up the box of my pick-up was full of garbage. The people responsible for throwing the garbage in this beautiful natural habitat must have missed the Earth Day lessons. They should be educated.

Kevin Doberstein lives in north Wisconsin and enjoys hiking and photographing nature and wildlife. He also writes articles for his website ForestWonderer.com This site has articles concerning forest and wetland conservation issues. He also publishes a blog with informational wildlife conservation issues.