Education and Outreach Annual Environmental Fair

For the past four years, KBNRD has hosted an Environmental Fair to celebrate Earth Day. The event provides environmental education to area school children, grades 2nd through 5th. What started as a few visits to local school classrooms to discuss environmental issues and share information has grown to an entire day devoted to Environmental Education for over 300 area students.  Funding for this event is provided by various NRD grants and all displays come from area volunteers including USFS, MiDNR, MTU, KBOCC, KBNRD, USFWS and many others.

When is Earth Day and what exactly is it all about? Earth Day is officially April 22nd and is a day to celebrate Mother Earth and draw attention to environmental issues. The first Earth Day was the brainstorm of Senator Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, which began as an idea after witnessing the Cuyahoga River going up in flames in 1968 for the second time. The first Earth Day received support from both political parties - Republicans and Democrats, as well as rich and poor, tycoons and labor workers. It led to the formation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that same year, as well as the passage of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Earth Day has been celebrated every year since 1970 and in 1990, the event went global. Earth Day's purpose of encouraging social and political action by drawing attention to the environmental cause remains unchanged.