A Great Way to Celebrate Earth Day

Join URWA on Saturday to help clean up
a stream in your neighborhood!

It was 41 years ago this week that the efforts Senator Gaylord Nelson gave birth to the modern environmnetal movement.  The first Earth Day observance on April 22, 1970 brought together 20 million Americans, all of whom called for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies.  In 1990 the Earth Day rallies went global, with an estimated 200 million people joining in the call to action to protect our environment.  Every year, Earth Day serves as a powerful focal point around which people from all walks of life demonstrate their commitment to a healthy planet.

We invite you to celebrate Earth Day this weekend by spending a few hours cleaning up local waterways.  Clean water is something that many of us take for granted here in the lovely Upper Raritan watershed.  Our streams appear almost pristine and most of us drink water directly from our taps without being concerned about carcinogens and other polluntants that may taint drinking water in other parts of our state.  It might surprise you then, to learn that each year when we head out to survey local streams and collect trash from them that we gather up about 300 pounds of garbage at every site we visit!  We've found everything from tires and household appliances to construction materials and broken toys in the brooks, streams and rivers that flow through the countryside here.

We'd love to have your help on Saturday morning as we gather along the banks of streams in Far Hills, Bedminster, Branchburg, Chester and Peapack/Gladstone to collect garbage.  We'll start at 9:00 a.m. and we'll provide everything you need - work gloves, garbage bags and snacks - to make the morning a productive one.  We'll wrap up our work by about noon, so you'll have the rest of the day free to enjoy the great feeling that will come with knowing you've contributed tangible service to the Earth Day ethic!

For more information about URWA's stream clean-up efforts and to sign up to help, please call (908) 234-1852, ext. 12 or email Lauren Theis.