How I Spent Earth Day

I spent 4 hours on Saturday up at my county's Earth Day celebration, showing people Spotted Salamanders. I have three one-year-old sallies, and I also brought an egg mass that I collected from the creek in my back yard; the eggs hatched about a week ago, so people were able to see all three stages: eggs, larvae and adults.

I had the kids in our homeschool Nature Club help me make a poster about Spotted Salamanders and vernal pools, so I had that to show, too. My son (9 years old) and my daughter (6) were there with me, and some of the kids from Nature Club came by as well.

People were really interested in the salamanders and many were very surprised to find out that they live, literally, in our back yards (for those of us that have woods near bodies of water). I felt great because I know I helped to make a bunch of people aware of how hidden animals in our local ecosystem are dependent on our leaving the woods, streams and other bodies of water intact and unpolluted.

I hardly had any people saying "eeew!" and there were lots who thought the salamanders were cute. Many, many people didn't know that salamanders are amphibians and have an aquatic life stage. One older lady was absolutely fascinated and just kept saying, "I can't believe it!" She was adorable.

 

Sounds like a great day! Good job.

 

Thats awsome and exactly what we need, every day needs to be earth day.

 

Sounds like a fun time. If earthday was'nt on my birthday i'd probaly take some of animals to the local parks earthday celebration for some "show and tell"

 

Happy Birthday, Ryan! (I know there's a thread for that, but here I am...)

 

lol. Thanks.