Celebrate Earth Day’s 40th birthday by greening your yard

Earth Day, first celebrated 40 years ago on April 22, 1970, is an annual event for people around the world to celebrate the earth and renew our commitment to building a safer, healthier and cleaner world. To celebrate this special Earth Day birthday, Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) Environmental Services encourages residents to green their yards.

Yards can be fun, beautiful spaces to relax and spend time with family and friends. However, in taking care of them, homeowners often use water inefficiently, produce significant waste, use lawn-care tools that pollute the air, and overuse chemicals that are detrimental to the environment and their families’ health.

Residents can take a number of simple steps to have a great looking yard that's easier to care for, less expensive to maintain, and healthier for families, pets, wildlife and our environment.

• Use native plants. Decrease the mowing area by planting native flowerbeds and shrubs. Native plants require little or no maintenance, and less water, fertilizer and pesticide than grass.
• Tune up your lawn mower. Lawn mowing and other routine lawn maintenance contributes significantly to air pollution in Greater Kansas City.
• Compost yard waste. Composting reduces water pollution and strain on our landfills and provides a nourishing additive for your garden.
• Use lawn chemicals sparingly. When lawn chemicals are applied improperly, they run off into streams, harming fish and other animals and contaminating our drinking water.
• Test your soil. Have your soil tested before using fertilizers to prevent over-application or using chemicals your lawn may not need.
• Dispose of chemicals properly. The health and safety of people, animals, and our communities and the environment is endangered when household hazardous waste products — including many lawn chemicals — are discarded in household garbage, sinks or washed down storm drains.
• Pick up after your pet. If not disposed of properly, thousands of pounds of untreated pet waste flow into streams and lakes every time it rains, posing a danger to human health and aquatic life.
• Take the healthy-yard assessment. Kansas Healthy Yards & Communities has designed a self-assessment to evaluate maintenance practices in your yard. Complete the assessment to see how your yard ranks. Visit www.kansasgreenyards.com.

Regional Earth Day events and activities:

• 4/17 – Earth Fair 9, Shawnee Mission East High School, Prairie Village, Kan., 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
• 4/22 – “Green The Core,” Power & Light District, Kansas City, Mo., 11 a.m.–1 p.m.
• 4/22 – Olathe Earth Day, Corporate Ridge Office Park, Olathe, Kan., 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
• 4/24 – Green Day Festival, Lakeside Nature Center, Kansas City, Mo., 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
• 4/24 – Habitat for Humanity ReStore Earth Day sale, Kansas City, Mo., 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
• 5/1 – Green Day Festival Wyandotte High School, Kansas City, Kan., 8 a.m.–2 p.m.
• 5/9 – Pirates of Pollution puppet show, Theis Park, Kansas City, Mo., 1:30 p.m.
• 5/26 – Going Green! 2010 Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kan., 10 a.m.–3 p.m.

Contact your local city, school, church or neighborhood organization for information about Earth Day events in your community. For a list of additional metro area events and earth-friendly actions you can take visit www.RecycleSpot.org.