Scouts, others clean MetroParks areas for 36th Earth Day

BOARDMAN

Eleven-year-old Charley Masters hopes one day to become a veterinarian, though she didn’t wait until adulthood to do something to help animals – and the environment.

“There were a lot of bottles we found, and there was a pillow and cups and bags,” said Charley, a Canfield Middle School sixth-grader and a member of Canfield-based Girl Scout Cadet Troop 80095, referring to some of the trash and recyclable materials that filled her large plastic bag. “I like helping the community and the animals, and if the animals eat trash, they could die.”

Wildlife roaming the Mill Creek Preserve, a 300-acre section of Mill Creek MetroParks with wetland habitats and numerous trails off Western Reserve Road, will encounter a far smaller quantity of harmful matter, however, thanks to Saturday morning’s 36th annual Earth Day cleanup, which took place throughout the park system.

The Whispering Pines District of the Great Trail Council Boy Scouts of America and Mill Creek MetroParks sponsored the event.

Earth Day, which is today, began April 22, 1970, when an estimated 20 million Americans who had been fighting against pollution, toxic dumps, pesticides, deforestation and other environmental hazards demonstrated for a healthier, cleaner environment. The effort received bipartisan support, led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and resulted in the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species acts.

Read more about the effort in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.