So she decided to do something about it.
"I'm aware of global warming," Mariah said. "I know it's happening. And I feel bad that the U.S. hasn't done anything to prevent it. I feel that celebrating the Earth at this point in our lives is really important."
The program pairs UM students with area K-12 teachers. Using schoolyards and nearby open spaces, ECOS teams develop science demonstration projects related to local ecology and conservation biology. The program is designed to contribute to a national model of how locally based ecological research can be introduced to improve science teaching and learning.
Recently, Mariah said, ECOS students have been talking about Earth Day, a worldwide celebration to promote ecological sustainability, which originated on April 22, 1970. On that day more than 20 million Americans turned out to support hundreds of events across the country to express their concern about the declining health of the environment.
Friday is the 36th observance of Earth Day. And several events are planned in Missoula for the occasion, including one organized by Mariah.
With help from another Missoula grade-school student, Emerson Skufca from Washington Middle School, and her mom, Sherry Jones, Mariah has put together what she hopes will be Missoula's inaugural Earth Day Festival. She invites everyone to come, learn about local environmental organizations and issues, and dance to live music on the grass at the park to celebrate the Earth. Admission is free, she said.
It will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at Kiwanis Park, which is downtown on the Clark Fork River, near the Missoula Public Library.
Mariah's festival will feature music by the Drum Brothers, the Broken Valley Roadshow, fiddler Grace McNamee, and the Fat Bachelors, a bluegrass group from Helena.
In addition, there will be some fun activities, including candle-making and face-painting.
Local environmental organizations that include the Global Warming Coalition, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the Missoula Urban Demonstration Project, FreeCycles will be represented. Those folks, Mariah said, will provide information about their organizations and talk to people about the environment.
"We were talking about Earth Day in our ECOS committee," Mariah said. "And we figured out there really wasn't anything going on (to celebrate in Missoula). And I had this idea pop into my head that there should be something going on to celebrate the Earth because of global warming."
"Actually," she added, "I'd like to do this every year. This is my first year. Next year I might be a little more well known, so more people will want to be involved in it."
Here are some other activities planned in Missoula on Friday to celebrate Earth Day:
n Students in Lewis and Clark School's ECOS Program will celebrate Earth Day by getting down and dirty at Bancroft Pond. The students will pick up garbage, prune dead branches, remove large pieces of cement and metal boxes from the water, pull weeds and attack invasive water lilies. With help from Missoula Parks and Recreation, kindergartners through third-graders will work from 9 to 11 a.m., and grades four and five will follow from 1 to 3 p.m. For up-to-date information on the Earth Day schedule, call Jane McAllister at 542-4354, Tammy Mildenstein at 721-1127 or Dave Claman at 721-PARK.
Four crews from two biology classes at Hellgate High School will spend Earth Day taking a trip to the Grant Creek winter range to dismantle and pack out an old barbed wire fence that bisects the migration route for elk. The fence is about 2,100 feet of four strands of wire, some still connected to old posts and some down and hidden in the brush, "a real hazard," said Ron Hoff, a Hellgate biology teacher. The fence will be rolled up and loaded into pickups to be hauled to Pacific Recycling.
An Earth Day restoration weed pull at Sawmill Gulch in the Rattlesnake Recreation Area is planned from noon to 2 p.m. by the Native Forest Network. Volunteers are welcome and should meet at the Stensrud Building, 314 N. First St. W., to carpool; or arrive at the Sawmill Gulch trailhead by noon. The group will leave at 11:45 a.m. Call 542-7343 to confirm a ride. Bring gloves and shovels if you can. Avoid "invasive hitchhikers by not wearing fleece or wool."
The following University of Montana Earth Day activities are planned on campus and elsewhere in Missoula this weekend:
Friday
From 10 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, there will be an Earth Day "teach-in" at the University Center, Room 329. Students are invited to learn about water and agriculture, the state of the Clark Fork River and the UM College of Technology's alternative energy curriculum and degrees.
At 11:30 a.m., a sustainability fair will take place on the Mansfield Library Mall, located between the library and UC. Opportunities will be offered until about 2 p.m. to play "global wheel of fortune," calculate ecological footprints on the Earth, learn about UM recycling, and take a ride on UM's biodiesel-powered BioBus.
At noon Friday, an Earth Day celebration will be held at the Mansfield Library Mall, with pizza and cookies, and music by Mike Avery and his band, and Josh Avery on American Indian flute.
At 12:15 p.m. during the celebration, UM's efforts to improve sustainability on campus will be presented, along with the Greening UM Award, given to an outstanding student who has made a significant environmental contribution to the campus and community.
Saturday
All Missoula residents are invited to help UM students with a variety of Earth service events Saturday. Clean Start, an Earth Day service project, will take place at several Missoula locations. Organized by the UM Office for Civic Engagement, the event offers volunteers the opportunity to participate in up to four different areas:
From 9 a.m. to noon, a river cleanup will take place on the Clark Fork River along the Kim Williams Trail. Participants should meet at the Van Buren Street footbridge or Kiwanis Park to receive collection bags.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., volunteers will meet at the base of Mount Sentinel to pull weeds and plant native plant seeds on the hillside. Meet at the "M" trailhead at 10 a.m. or walk up the trail until you find the weed pullers and trash bags.
At noon, refreshments will be available for workers at Mount Sentinel and at a free barbecue at Caras Park in downtown Missoula.
From 1:30 to 3 p.m., volunteers will jump into garbage cans in a "dumpster dive" at the UM Recycle Shed, located behind Facilities Services. Participants will search for recyclable items.
From noon to 4 p.m. at Bonner Park, participants can attend a seminar on building a bike at the Festival of Cycles, sponsored by FreeCycles. Volunteers also have the opportunity to participate in an "Ecopentathalon," an event in which bikes are ridden to each of the four volunteer areas in one-hour sprints. Participants must bring their own bikes, helmets and water bottles to join the Ecopentathalon. All Clean Start volunteers are eligible to win a Missoula Urban Demonstration Project membership.
For more information about the UM events, call the Office for Civic Engagement at 243-5531.
Reporter Daryl Gadbow can be reaches at 523-5264 or at dgadbow@missoulian.com
Join the celebration
Missoula's inaugural Earth Day Festival, organized by 11-year-old Mariah Jones Brooks, will be held from from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at Kiwanis Park, downtown on the Clark Fork River, near the Missoula Public Library. The festival will feature live music, fun activities and local environmental organizations. Admission is free. For more information, call Mariah at 251-3244.
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