Gila Earth Day will be celebrated throughout April, providing a variety of opportunities to take action on behalf of our planet. The international theme for this year’s event is “Restore Our Earth”, and the Gila Resources Information Project (GRIP) and Gila Earth Day planning committee are organizing multiple activities: virtual programming from participant organizations, classrooms, and individuals throughout the month of April; a virtual book tour discussion with Laura Paskus author of At the Precipice New Mexico’s Changing Climate on Thursday, April 22; and small, COVID-safe community actions around the region on Saturday, April 24.
“April is designated as Earth Month, so we will be streaming Earth Day programming on the Gila Earth Day Facebook page throughout the month,” said Gila Earth Day coordinator and GRIP Membership & Program Coordinator Doyne Wrealli. “Among the local films to be shown are the Gila Native Plant Society’s Pollinators and Native Plants, the Aldo Leopold Charter School Youth Conservation Corp’s history of beautification projects in the area, and Green Energy Now’s Landscaping with Water Harvesting. We invite anyone with up to a 15-minute film, slideshow, or presentation to participate.”
Environmental journalist and radio producer Laura Paskus will speak about her new book At the Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate (University of New Mexico Press, 2020) on Thursday, April 22 at 6:00 pm. New Yorker Magazine’s Elizabeth Kolbert writes in her review of the book “As Laura Paskus makes clear, the stakes of climate change in the American Southwest couldn’t be higher. Deeply reported and vividly written, At the Precipice is an important contribution to the literature of our reckless age.”
A dynamic and knowledgeable speaker, Laura Paskus has been writing about New Mexico’s natural resources and communities since 2002 as an assistant editor of High Country News, a radio producer at KUNM-FM, managing editor of Tribal College Journal and a freelancer for a variety of publications including the Santa Fe Reporter, New Mexico In Depth and Indian Country Today. Her work has also appeared in Al Jazeera America, Ms. Magazine, National Geographic Online, Orion and other national publications. She is the producer of the New Mexico In Focus series “Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present, and Future.” There will be a question and answer session at the end of her presentation.
The Gila Earth Day planning committee is also organizing small, COVID-safe community actions for Saturday, April 24. Activities include a trash clean up in the Cliff-Gila Valley led by The Nature Conservancy, a riparian restoration project in San Vicente Creek with the Aldo Leopold Charter School’s Youth Conservation Corps, and the Southwest New Mexico Audubon Society cliff swallow education program. Participating groups, such as families, classrooms, or church groups, should consist of fewer than 10 people, wear masks, and practice social distancing. Ideas for more community actions are welcome, and volunteers are needed.
Thank you to our generous and supportive sponsors, including Advocates for Snake Preservation, Lynda Aiman-Smith, Aldo Leopold Charter School Youth Conservation Corps, Heart of the Gila, Gila Native Plant Society, Grant County Beekeepers, Green Energy Now, Lone Mountain Natives Nursery, Silver City MainStreet and Visitor’s Center, Southwest New Mexico Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, Thinking ON a Mountain, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance, Western Institute for Lifelong Learning (WILL), and Wild Earth Guardians.
If you would like to sponsor or volunteer for Gila Earth Day, or if you have any questions about these events, please contact GRIP Membership & Program Coordinator Doyne Wrealli at earthendoyne@gmail.com, or visit the Gila Earth Day page on Facebook.