Happy Earth Day Tuesday! Since 1970, April 22 has been set aside as a time to honor our Mother Earth. Some will argue that the environmental movement had its birth on that day. On the other hand, those among us who’ve built lives from the ground and the living things springing from it, established family roots in it, and see the web that holds it all together, might argue that the movement is much older. Be that as it may, most of us will take a little time in the next few days to ponder this planet which makes our lives so bountiful.
In honor of Earth Day, folks around the valley will plant trees, clean up and sweep up, and haul away literally tons of trash from places it didn’t need to be left in the first place. Every day is Earth Day for members of the Reecer Creek Rod, Gun, Working Dog & Outdoor Think Tank Benevolent Association, of course, but we always make special efforts on this weekend. Thus, tomorrow is Annual Casual Shooting Areas along Durr Road Cleanup Day, organized every year by the Kittitas County Field and Stream Club, with help from Waste Management, Kittitas County Solid Waste, Kittitas County Public Works, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Then, too, Dan Bramstedt, Jeep Johnson and Nika Mihailov prepare a hot dog and hamburger lunch for the volunteers. (Did I mention the doughnuts?)
In a given year, anywhere from 40 to 80 pickers come to play. We have picked up empty rifle brass, bag upon bag of spent shotgun shells, paper, cardboard, shot up computers, shattered glass building blocks, tires, cans and plastic bottles, brazillians of broken beer and wine bottles and pickup loads of almost anything else a fool could carry to the hill, shoot up and leave. We have several times pretty much filled the 30-yard dumpsters provided by Waste Management, with somewhere between two and three tons of shooters’ irresponsibility. It’s an appropriate way to celebrate the day – after all, as we rake and clean up, we literally groom Mother Earth.
I still argue that some very ancient trees and I invented Earth Day in Tacoma when I was about three years old. Through their long lives, stretching into 1960s, Grandma and Grandpa Minshall lived at the edge of a stand of old growth cedars and Douglas firs in Tacoma. Tall ferns and mosses, and all the other plants that make up the Northwest’s temperate rainforest grew wild there, all crowded up to Grandma’s flower beds bordering Grandpa’s soft green lawn.
At that very early age, I would slip into the ferns and trees and totally disappear within feet of that manicured lawn and those giant flowers. Sometimes, while everybody was busy running around the neighborhood looking and hollering for me, I’d visit with those big ancient trees. Hearing their voices (since no one had yet told me they could not speak), I always felt a part of some protective family. Together, those trees and I invented Earth Day as I know it. To this day, I am in awe of the life force of great old trees, and cannot pass by one of them without paying homage to it.
I will readily admit that my fascination with Earth Day could just be that ‘60s stuff we brag about, but I take the day seriously. I believe that each of us IS the Earth, since every cell in our bodies is built of earth minerals and chemicals drawn from the soil and air and water which produce our food. How can we not recognize our responsibility to the planet and to those building materials and resources we use to sustain ourselves?
Consider the possibilities: meditating on the planet and its web of life; taking outdoor action through work and play; and eating food with joy, gusto and laughter. Such things must be good for Mother Earth. The late Julia Child would approve, too, I think. Touring the US in the late 1990s, she raised her voice about how we have divorced ourselves from one of the great joys of life: food. She spoke of the health benefits of simply enjoying food. Carrying that into taking outdoor action and eating food with joy, gusto and laughter has to be good for the planet.
Join the party. You will be able to tell your grandchildren that you played alongside the outdoor heroes of Kittitas County. Watch their eyes light up when you mention collecting trash alongside such icons as Gordon “Keep That Road to Wild Places Open Forever” Blossom, Lee “Small Streams are the Answer to All Fishing Blues” Davis, Bill “Dances with Rattlers” and Deborah “Bird Whisperer of Paradise” Essman.
By the way, shooting range rules and locations are about to change along Durr Road. Come to the Wednesday, April 29, discussion at Hal Holmes 6 p.m. See for yourself how the DFW changes will help keep the whole area cleaner.
First, though, come play tomorrow. 9 a.m. on Durr Road – look for the signs.
Happy Earth Day, 2015…
