By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Following a “half-century of mobilization for action,” organizers locally and globally are set to celebrate Earth Day on April 22 with this year’s theme, “Invest in our Planet.”
Local-minded efforts include Hillsborough County’s compost giveaway; the Friends of Alafia and Keep American Beautiful cleanup event at Alafia River State Park in Lithia; and the Hillsborough 100 Conservation Challenge kickoff luncheon at The Regent in Riverview, hosted by the Hillsborough Soil and Water Conservation District.
Linda Chion Kenney Photo
Coffee grounds, available for free at the Starbucks restaurant off FishHawk Boulevard, include educational information about its compost-added value.
Businesses, including Starbucks, through its giveaway of coffee grounds, have stepped up as well with initiatives related to the overall theme of conservation. The free bag of “Grounds for Your Garden” is educational as well, noting the recommendation of experts to include up to 20 percent coffee grounds in a compost pile. Noted as well is that “coffee grounds have an average pH of 6.9, a carbon-nitrogen ratio of 20 to 1 and [can] be added directly to your garden as a side dressing for nitrogen-loving plants (test with a small amount first).”
Collectively, these initiatives are a drop in the bucket for local, national and global efforts that mark the anniversary of Earth Day, launched in 1970, which invites people individually and in groups and far-reaching movements to do more to save our natural resources.
“For Earth Day 2022 we need to act boldly, innovate broadly and implement equitably,” reads a post at EarthDay.org, the official Earth Day web site. “All in. Businesses, governments and citizens, everyone accounted for, and everyone accountable. A partnership for the planet.”
For more on Earth Day projects and news on conservation issues, including the “Great Global Cleanup” and “The Canopy Project” for planting trees, visit www.EarthDay.org/.
Partnerships are key to the work of the Hillsborough Soil and Water Conservation District, which is set to kick off its Hillsborough 100 Conservation Challenge, at a luncheon April 27 at The Regent in Riverview. The annual challenge invites individuals, families, schools and youth organizations, service and civic clubs, community groups, businesses, nonprofits and more to create and register “Action Awareness Projects” for natural resources conservation. Efforts include everything from road, park and beach clean-ups to recycling drives, tree plantings and u-picks, with this year’s attention as well on efforts to protect “our perfect pollinators.”
“After issues related to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re set for the full-scale return of the Hillsborough 100 Conservation Challenge, which started in 2017,” said Betty Jo Tompkins, HSWCD’s executive director. “We are particularly excited that the range and scope of activities and events continues to grow, and we are committed to show by doing that conservation, indeed, is everybody’s business.”
For more, visit www.HillsboroughSWCD.com/.
As for action awareness, the Friends of Alafia, through its affiliation with Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, is set to host its annual cleanup at Alafia River State Park in Lithia on Saturday, April 23. The three-hour event kicks off at 9 a.m., at 14326 South County Road 39. All ages and groups are welcome, and documentation for students seeking community service hours will be provided. The aim is to remove invasive plants, and attendees are asked to wear closed-toe shoes and to bring bug spray, sunscreen, gloves and a refillable water container. Register in the ranger station parking lot. For more information, visit www.FriendsofAlafia.org/.
Meanwhile, Hillsborough County officials are spreading the word that compost matters, and it’s available for free at no cost for residents, Saturday, April 23, at the Hillsborough Heights Solid Waste Facility in Seffner at 6209 County Road 579. The hours are 9 a.m. to noon.
Through Keep Tampa Beautiful, the first 200 motorists driving through are set to receive a free, 1-gallon Florida native tree. Moreover, all visitors to the facility April 23 can get information as well about backyard composting workshops, offered at no cost through the Hillsborough County Extension in Seffner. For more, visit www.sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu and search for “Compost Happens.”
Busy at work at last year’s “Let’s Plant Some Trees” event at the Lower Green Swamp Nature Preserve in Plant City, a Hillsborough 100 Conservation Challenge Action Awareness
An educational service, offered through the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), Hillsborough County Extension, provides a transfer of information from university officials to county residents through workshops, programs and publications that include a wide range of agriculture, lawn and garden, horticulture and conservation topics.
Toward that end, the UF/IFAS webinar entitled, “Wind and Urban Trees: Lessons Learned From Hurricanes,” set for April 27, is geared toward “citizens, communities and professionals who seek better management practices to reduce damage from tree failure during future storms.”
Online at www.HCFLGov.net, a video showing how compost is made adds to the discussion of how the material protects against plant diseases and builds good soil structure, while helping soil maintain a neutral pH and retain nutrients, air and water.
The compost, set to be given for no cost to county residents, meets stringent state and federal regulatory guidelines, according to county officials. Shovels will be provided for residents, who are asked to self-load the county-created compost into the bags provided or into the containers they bring with them. There is a limit, however, of up to 5 gallons of compost per vehicle, and no commercial vehicles are permitted.
