Grants to mark Earth Day
NMSU-Grants ready to celebrate 38-year-old tradition

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — New Mexico State University-Grants joins the 38-year-old Earth Day tradition again this year with ecology activities, demonstrations and a new recycling opportunity.
This is the sixth year the campus has observed ecology day. The April 22 Earth Day was started in 1970 by U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson to draw national attention to the state of the environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 22 million people observed the first April 22 Earth Day. The annual day, as we know it, evolved from the teach-in and awareness movements of the 1960s. The United Nations founded a similar observance in 1969, known as the Equinox Earth Day.

The Grants campus observance includes three days of activities, beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 19. Volunteers can come and work on eco-friendly projects that improve the campus and give local people an opportunity to work outside. Registration is at 8:30 a.m.

Saturday; lunch for volunteers is from noon to 1 p.m. after which everyone can relax and get ready for the next day.
Facilitator Dr. Joan Erben of the NMSU Humanities Department said the local species garden provides gardeners and birders a chance to get their hands dirty and create a habitat attracts birds and small animals to a plot on the hillside abutting the main campus building. The garden was started with the first campus Earth Day and is a work-in-progress that continues today to give students and faculty a look at natural New Mexico from campus hallways.

Earth Day participants are also welcome to work on a footpath up the mesa. Erben said the existing path up the mesa where cross-country runners from Grants High School practice is not on campus land and is very steep. Earth Day work is creating, bit by bit, a gentler walk up the hill on part of the 20 acres behind educational structures.

People who are not up to hard outdoor work can take part by bringing in aluminum cans for recycling, working on art projects and attending a demonstration on invasive species.
Erben said this is the first year the event will feature recycling and organizers are not sure what to expect. She said there will be 50 gallon buckets for aluminum cans located in front and in back of the building, but no one knows if there will be a mountain of squashed cans piling up. Cans will be taken to a recycler in Thoreau after the event.

The campus has had its share of birds flying into windows by mistake. On of the art projects conducted by Assistant Humanities Professor Gene Romero will make cutout images of birds to put on the windows so wild birds in flight can see the space is not safe to fly through.

The U.S Forest Service, the National Park Service and the New Mexico State Forestry Division, working with the Northwest New Mexico Visitor Center, will give a demonstration on invasive plant species in New Mexico and be available in their booth for questions and answers. The group will give out tree seedlings.

NMSU-Grants Creative Media Program picks up the green theme in the Change the World film festival on campus over the weekend. Prizes for the festival will be awarded at noon on Sunday.

Volunteers should bring hot and cold weather outdoor gear including water, sunscreen, a brimmed hat, work gloves, sturdy shoes and a snack.

The Associated Student Government will provide lunch, but nibbles on the job are up to volunteers.

Early arrivals can take a hot air balloon ride, weather permitting, between 6 a.m. and the 9 a.m. kick-off Saturday and Sunday.

On the Net:
http://earthday.wilderness.org/history/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day