55 Years For Earth Day, 35 Years for SEC
By David Morell
Never since its initial founding by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson and university activist Dennis Hayes on November 22, 1970, have we needed to actively recognize and celebrate Earth Day more than right now. As our country’s new leadership in the White House eagerly destroys the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with 85 percent cuts in personnel and funding, while pursuing a mad and mindless policy of “drill baby drill” and “tariffs baby tariffs,” creative action has never been more imperative. All of us urgently need to help save our planet from its ongoing incremental destruction. Earth Day helped induce President Richard Nixon (a Republican) to found the U.S. EPA by executive order in 1970.
Beyond its intrinsic significance nationally, indeed even globally, Earth Day has a special importance here locally in Sonoma Valley. On this date in 1990, Sonoma resident Richard Dale sponsored our town’s first Earth Day celebration. That event turned out to be so successful, and so appreciated locally, that he decided to found the Sonoma Ecology Center (SEC). “Happy 35th Birthday, SEC!”
That terrific local organization has since, of course, grown greatly in size and significance, with a current annual budget of about $3 million, helping to preserve our lands and waters and educating our residents in techniques of effective environmental action. From its operation of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park (taking over after State Parks announced its intention to close it) to operation of Sonoma Garden Park on behalf of the City of Sonoma, to providing environmental education in each of our local schools, to ongoing efforts in ecological restoration, wildfire risk reduction, and carbon sequestration through biochar usage, SEC shows what’s possible in the spirit of “Earth Day – every day!”
Now, of course, we face intensified ecological challenges, not only locally but globally. Like our political truths in 1776, the effects of our warming planet are indeed “self-evident.” Denial in DC flies in the face of facts on the ground here and everywhere. Sonoma Valley’s temperatures increase inexorably, year after year after year. When we were kids we had never known the term, “Atmospheric River.” And need I point to our wildfire destruction here in both 2017 and again in 2020, let alone the even-larger destruction witnessed recently in LA, where “fire season” happens in January. I often call it all “global weirding” rather than global warming. Despite the big lies and the big denials, climate impacts are real and increasingly painful for all of us.
How can we celebrate Earth Day here in Sonoma in 2025? Let me count some of the many ways:
Go Outdoors. On Earth Day and every day, spend more of 2025 outside. Visit a new park or forest while practicing “leave no trace” principles to protect natural spaces. Here in Sonoma, walk on our local trails or stroll around a local vineyard; hike Sonoma Overlook Trail or Montini Preserve; enjoy Sonoma Garden Park on Seventh Street East; consider hiking or picnicking at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park; visit Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Bouverie Preserve; hike in Bartholomew Park; enjoy Jack London State Historic Park.
Live Sustainably: On Earth Day and every day, practice ways to act responsibly in the face of our climate challenges. While our individual actions can often feel too small in the face of this global emergency, every individual, positive climate action is important. It pushes the whole system in the right direction. Others – friends, family, even strangers – notice and react. Thus collectively, each Sonoma climate action adds up to making a real difference. What if many of us – both visitors and residents – stopped buying so many things in plastic? How about if we walked or biked instead of driving? Could we find ways to switch one or more of our home’s appliances to be more energy efficient? Can we move Sonoma incrementally into being truly a “climate-smart tourist destination?”
Support and Advocate: Find ways to support climate-focused organizations – local (here in Sonoma), countywide, statewide and national. Find your own preferred actions on the city’s detailed list of climate action strategies. Get involved with Sonoma Ecology Center’s activities: clean-ups, outings, conservation action. Push for our city’s evolving “green links” initiatives and tree planting efforts to be included explicitly in our new City General Plan, and then implemented effectively.
Tap Into Your Own Networks: Each of you is the single best messenger to reach others – because you know them and they trust you. Share information about climate change, ecological conservation, and eco-friendly habits with your friends, family, neighbors or through social media.
Participate: Attend regular meetings of our city’s seven-member Climate Action Commission, either in person or via KSVY. (Dates, times, and locations can be found on the city’s webpage.)
Attend: Finally, please join us at Sebastiani Theater on Saturday, April 26, at 1 p.m. for a special free event honoring Earth Day 2025. This includes screening of a unique new movie created for New Yorker magazine; a presentation of sounds of nature from Sugarloaf Ridge State Park; and a ceremony honoring Sonoma Ecology Center’s birthday on Earth Day 35 years ago. It’s free, please come join us.
In sum, in all these different ways, do your own part to make Earth Day 2025 memorable, both on April 22 and on every day thereafter.
David Morell holds a PhD degree from Princeton University. He served as an official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in both D.C. and San Francisco, and helped direct California’s hazardous waste program as an appointee of Governor Jerry Brown. He currently serves on the Sonoma Ecology Center Board of Directors and also chairs the City of Sonoma Climate Action Commission.
Be First to Comment