Earth Day 2010
What a Difference a Decade Makes!

PEEC's 2010 Earth Day theme, What a Difference a Decade Makes! incorporates the rememberance of the 10th anniversary of the Cerro Grande fire, the 10th anniversary of the founding of PEEC, and the importance of volunteerism.

April 3-30: Earth Day Art Show, Mesa Public Library
April 8: Art Show Opening
April 17: Guided Hike
April 18: Guided Hike
April 22: Earth Day Speaker
April 24: Guided Hike
April 24: Festival
April 25: Party for PEEC
TBA: Student Symposium

Earth Day Festival

Saturday, April 24

10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

The Earth Day Festival will feature displays by community groups of their earth-friendly products and practices and their information about our environment on the Pajarito Plateau. Renaissance entertainment group Clan Tynker will perform. The festival will be held at PEEC, 3540 Orange St., Los Alamos.

Restoring Southwestern forests: goshawks, food webs, and ecosystems

Thursday, April 22, 7 p.m.

The Northern Goshawk is a large forest-dwelling raptor whose viability is in question because of habitat changes resulting from tree cutting, fire exclusion, and livestock grazing. I will describe an approach for developing a goshawk forest habitat conservation strategy that can be applied throughout the range of the hawk. The strategy includes sets of desired habitats based on existing knowledge of the life history and habitats of goshawks, the life histories and habitats of their prey, and the ecology of overstory and understory vegetation that comprise the habitats of goshawks. The goshawk conservation strategy uniquely presents an approach and a process that can aid in restoring the natural species diversity, spatial variability, productivity, and sustainability of Southwestern forests. Richard Reynolds is a Research Wildlife Biologist at the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado.

The talk will begin at 7 p.m., but join us from 6-7 p.m. for a display of live forest-dwelling birds presented by the Santa Fe Raptor Center.

Earth Day Art Show

Touched by Fire -
Hands that Help, Hands that Create

April 3-30
Opening: April 8, 5:00-7:30

The theme of the art show remembers the 10th anniversary of the Cerro Grande fire. The show will feature artwork inspired by the fire and by the recovery effort, along with artwork that addresses the artists' relationships with nature and the forest, both before and after the fire. In addition to the art work, people who volunteered their efforts to help with firefighting and the recovery effort will be featured on a Wall of Volunteers.

The art show opening night will feature readings by the Nuclear Poets at 6:15, and a talk by Craig Martin at 6:30.

Butterfly Garden Groundbreaking

April 24, 12:30 p.m.

This past fall the Kinnikinnick Club kids worked with Dorothy Hoard to plan a new butterfly garden to be built adjacent to the PEEC nature center. We will put in a variety of necessary plants, a puddling area, a handicap-accessible walkway, and a drip irrigation system from PEEC's cistern. With the help of collaborative groups, the children hope to turn their design into a reality. Join us for the groundbreaking ceremony during the Earth Day Festival on April 24th at 12:30.

Click to view Garden Schematic Drawing.

Party for PEEC
"Nativo Meal" and Auction

Sunday, April 25

Hilltop House Best Western

The cultivation of food unites people to land and water. Cooking and sharing a meal unites people to one another. Join us for traditional and contemporary dishes made with ancient foods, including corn, squash, beans, chile, bison, turkey, trout, nuts, seeds, berries and cocoa. This will be a wonderful dinner, prepared with respect for Native culture and indigenous foods. Recipes for all dishes and a brief history of each ingredient will be available to take home.

Tickets: $50/adult, $95/couple, $20/youth (6-17). Please purchase by April 21.

Click to view Auction Items and Menu.

Student Symposium

Postponed

The Cerro Grande Fire. Trees, stream channels, blue birds, and wildflowers. A Decade of Research by Los Alamos School students.

Students from Mountain, Aspen, LAMS, Chamisa, Pinon, and YES Corps will present data on fire recovery that have been collected over the past decade. Come hear about their amazing data collection and the outdoor education experience. Sponsored by Volunteer Task Force, Family YMCA, and (PEEC).

Guided Hikes

April 17, 9:00 a.m.

April 18, 4:30 p.m.

April 24, 9:00 a.m.

April 17: Rory Gauthier will lead a hike to Dutchess Castle. Meet at the Tsankawi parking lot at 9:00 AM. We will then get back into our cars and drive about 1/2 mile down the highway and park on the shoulder opposite the commuter parking lot. From here, we will hike to Duchess Castle and north mesa to look at cavates and petroglyphs including one that depicts a conquistador on horseback. Hike is moderately strenuous, off trail and will require some scrambling up talus slopes. Bring hat, water, sunscreen and some food. We will be out for about three hours.

April 18: Chris Judson will lead a hike to the La Mesa Fire area. Meet at Ponderosa Campground at 4:30 PM. La Mesa Fire, 33 years later - In June of 1977 the La Mesa Fire left part of the area around the Ponderosa Campground looking like a moonscape, while part was hardly touched. Thirty-three years later, we'll walk through some of each area and see what the long-term environmental effects have been (be ready to feel encouraged!). About l mile, off-trail but easy walking, wear long pants and closed-toed shoes since there are lots of thorny plants along the way. Probably about an hour. Meet at the trailhead at Ponderosa Campground. No pets.

April 24: Sierra Club cosponsored hike led by Michael Di Rosa and Craig Martin. Mitchell Trail, moderate difficulty, two miles. A close-up look at natural recovery and the results of a variety of volunteer efforts in watershed and trail restoration, including the champion planted ponderosa pine seedling. Meet at the High School parking lot (the large lot closest to Duane Smith Auditorium) at 9:00 a.m. We'll carpool from there and return to the high school and the Earth Day festival at PEEC by 11:00.

All Earth Day hikes are FREE.