Here’s How to Celebrate Earth Day in East Lansing

Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day has brought communities together to explore opportunities for creating greener, renewable neighborhoods. Earth Day this year is tomorrow (Saturday, April 22) and will again provide a variety of opportunities in East Lansing for learning and helping the environment.

Up your recycling game.

The City of East Lansing is co-hosting Recycle Rama from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Ingham County Health Department in Lansing at 5303 S. Cedar Street. Residents can recycle everything from hearing aids and eyeglasses to plastic, glass and scrap metal. Electronics can be recycled for $10 per item.

Do less work so the bees can do more.

East Lansing residents are also invited to continue practicing good stewardship of the environment into the coming weeks with No Mow May. East Lansing has been a Pollinator Friendly Community since August 2016, and recently, the East Lansing Commission on the Environment and the East Lansing Parks and Recreation Advisory Board lobbied City Council to approve a No Mow May resolution. Originating in the United Kingdom, No Mow May resolutions were adopted in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids in 2022.

Council unanimously approved the initiative during its April 4 meeting. The initiative means that during the month of May, enforcement of local laws that mandate upkeep of lawns will be suspended and property owners are encouraged to allow their lawns to grow. According to a statement on the city website, not mowing or reducing mowing through May “creates habitat and provides resources for hungry, early-season pollinator populations, such as native bees.”

Before the 5-0 approval, Councilmember George Brookover asked several questions of Cathy DeShambo, director of  East Lansing Parks, Recreation, and Arts. He wondered about the involvement of Michigan State University in the effort and was told the university likely will not join in. As to whether city lands will be mowed, DeShambo said some won’t but others, including active sports fields, will. And, she said, it is entirely up to private businesses as to whether they participate.

“And this is totally voluntary?” Brookover asked. “People can do it if they want to and not do it if they want to, correct?”

“This is so voluntary that people can choose to do any level of this, if they like,” DeShambo said. “If they choose to do a low-mow May because that’s what they’re comfortable with, if they need to negotiate potentially with their partner as to their comfort levels, with only the backyard, only the front yard, only a square. This is completely negotiable within people’s private properties.”

“Well, if I had a partner,” laughed Brookover, “that would be quite the negotiation, I’m sure.”

A detailed description of how the program works is available on the City of East Lansing website. Residents are invited to register to participate in the program on the website. Those who register can pick up yard signs at the Department of Public Works, 1800 E. State Road, or the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road, during regular facility hours.

On Thursday, City Environmental Specialist Cliff Walls sent out an email letting people know the signs have arrived and thanking those who are participating in or interested in No Mow May.

“We hope these signs help spread the word through the neighborhoods and inspire others to participate,” he wrote. “If asked about the signs by interested neighbors, feel free to direct them to the QR code at the bottom. Registration is not required to participate in No Mow May, but is required for a sign.”

Several East Lansing churches are using Earth Day to start conversations or take actions that could lead to a more sustainable tomorrow.

On Monday, April 17, the University United Methodist Church on S. Harrison Road hosted Dr. Jim Rine, a geologist and adjunct professor from Wayne State University’s Department of Environmental Science and Geology.

Rine, a veteran of the U.S. Army, spoke about the growth of the U.S. military and its ecological footprint. Combining the emissions of the U.S. Department of Defense with the entirety of the war industry, including defense contractors, that entity would be in the top 25 contributors of worldwide emissions, according to Rine.

“We also have lots of [military] bases,” he said. “We have between 750 and 800 bases and we’re building more with this conflict in Ukraine and we’re worried about China. But how many bases does China have? Less than 10. Russia has about 21. These are all overseas bases.”

These bases, Rine said, only add to the carbon emissions the U.S. military expands transporting personnel, supplies and weapons across the world.

Rine helped create the Veterans for Peace Climate Crisis and Militarism Project, working to lobby Congress to call on the Department of Defense to report and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The event was sponsored by the Lansing Area Peace Education Center and Michigan Veterans for Peace.

Meanwhile, All Saints Episcopal Church at 800 Abbot Road will spend Earth Day hosting a recycling drive for its congregation and planning pollinator gardens on its grounds.

“I’m old enough to remember the first Earth Day,” said Bill Murphy, member at All Saints and chair of its Building and Grounds Ministry. “I believe we as a faith community, we have a higher moral duty than non-religious organizations to protect the environment. We are part of the problem and an extra duty to protect the environment and pass it on to all future generations.  We must be leaders in this. We cannot be spectators.”

The church will be transitioning its ornamental gardens into pollinator gardens.

“We’re going back to nature,” Murphy said, “with low maintenance, native plants that have been in Michigan for hundreds and thousands of years. A lot of plants out there that look real nice don’t have any value to insects. We’re going for pollinator-friendly plants.”

Just over a mile away, Edgewood United Church of Christ at 469 N. Hagadorn Road will host an environmental message for their Sunday sermon on April 23. Over the last year, Edgewood has employed Addy Stuever, a senior at Michigan State University majoring in Environmental Studies and Sustainability, as its Climate Justice Fellow.

“Addy has been working on climate issues and programs with our congregation and Haslett Community Church,” Edgewood’s Rev. Liz Miller said. “She also has an impressive background interning with the [U.S.] Senate in D.C. on related issues and is passionate about combining climate justice with her faith and vocation.”

Stuever has titled her sermon “Finding Your Niche” and will help listeners determine what their role and responsibility is in creating a greener world.

In her role, Stuever led parishioners in a reading of “Speak with the Earth and It Will Teach You: a Field Guide to the Bible” by the Rev. Daniel Cooperrider, exploring the connection between faith and the natural world.

“Faith groups absolutely have a huge rule in creating a greener future,” Stuever said. “Many denominations have rich histories of leadership in the environmental community. Faith groups are a place where people go to find community. We can help build a healthier world at the same time.”