The City of Destin and the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance are partnering again this year to host an Earth Day cleanup event at the Joe’s Bayou Recreation Area on Saturday, April 21, 2018, from 8-10 a.m. The public is invited and encouraged to participate. Parking will be available at the Mattie Kelly Nature Walk across the street from Joe's Bayou Boat Launch (825 Beach Dr.).
“Earth day is a call for civic participation and global environmental awareness. Our delicate ecological systems and renewable resources are being endangered by careless behavior that injure our marine life, estuaries and other area wildlife,” said Destin City Manager Carisse LeJeune. “This year, Earth Day is focusing on the polluting disposal of plastics. Please join us on April 21 and participate in our community cleanup. We all need to show pride in our city’s most precious natural resources and commit to being good stewards of our environment.”
Volunteers will be picking up trash in the water, in the park and along the shoreline and roadway at the Mattie Kelly Park, nature walk, pier and Joe’s Bayou Boat Launch. All cleanup materials (gloves, bags, record sheets, etc.) will be provided. Feel free to bring a kayak or paddle board – launch at Joe’s Bayou Boat Launch. Also, be prepared to get wet! Free T-shirts will be provided.
Earth Day Network’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 50,000 partners in nearly 195 countries to build environmental democracy. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. We work through a combination of education, public policy, and consumer campaigns.
The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Twenty years later, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. - www.earthday.org.
