Earth Day is not as exciting as Christmas or Halloween.
If I think back to holidays as a kid I remember dressing up as a pumpkin year after year for that chilly night in October, or riding the chairlift with my sister on Christmas Eve, so darn excited I wanted to jump off the seat before the please lift your ski tips sign even came into view.
You don’t eat pumpkin pie on Earth Day. And there aren’t any presents. I don’t even remember celebrating Earth Day as a kid. Did it exist?
A little research proved that indeed it did. The first Earth Day in Canada was held in 1980 and included ceremonial tree planting and MPs across the country declaring Earth Day to be an annual event. Participants did the same things we might do on this April 22nd, like picking up garbage on the side of the road and planting trees to replace trees killed by Dutch Elm Disease —although now it might be because of those pesky mountain pine beetles.
Maybe the memories of holidays involving fatty foods or plastic presents trumped any memories of holidays about the environment, or maybe if the Earth Day trend in the eighties and nineties just hadn’t picked up yet. Either way — it’s here now.
I know I don’t have to go in to detail to explain that environmental concerns are at the forefront of our social and political agendas. Well, maybe not right at the front of the political agenda in this federal election — but it’s there.
When I think of Earth Day this year in Golden, I think of all we have to be proud of. The most obvious one is where this little community is situated: smack dab in the middle of the Rockies and the Purcells and bordering one of the world’s most precious wetlands.
My sister and I went on a canoe trip on the Columbia Wetlands, from Invermere to Golden, a few summers ago, and some of the species we saw — beavers surfacing just as nightfall hit, bald eagles circling about us — made me think: holy smokes. Look where we live.
A common phrase around these parts, I know.
But think of what we have accomplished in this past year, or even past few months. The Town passed the Cosmetic Pesticide Bylaw in the fall, and now our yards, and our neighbours’ yards, are just one more place we know we won’t be exposed to unhealthy chemicals.
There’s Community Bike Share Program. Curbside Recycling is coming.
Even the controversial Selkirk Power project is a reason to celebrate Earth Day. The number of people from out community who came to rally at town hall last month to voice their concern around the project’s environmental impact was incredible.
If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about this community since I moved here last year, it’s this: we’re anything but apathetic.
Our mountains, wetlands, rivers, streams, trees and soil are as important to us as the way we raise our children.
So maybe Earth Day is just as exciting as all those other holidays — or more. Maybe we just need to celebrate with a bit of cake so the kids remember it.
