Excitement reigns on Earth Day

By KIMBERLY M. WEYANDT

HAWLEY, PA — The earth sang on Saturday, April 30 as crowds of people gathered in her honor despite a spring shower. The PPL Corporation’s Environmental Learning Center’s Earth Day celebration this year was the earth event of the year.

Exhibits ranging from recycling to hybrid cars filled every room in the building and spilled out into the parking lot. An exhibit on backyard habitats used magnetized plant pictures and houses and a magnet board to teach children how to design a backyard for biodiversity.

“The more species of plants and diversity, the more diverse species you will attract,” said Kathy Dodge, education chair for the NEPA Audubon Society and designer of the playful learning board.

Down the hall children studied samples of plankton taken from Lake Wallenpaupack; made environmentally friendly bird feeders out of pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed; and got ready to on a geo-tracking treasure hunt.

Geo-tracking is a new sport worldwide. It uses government satellites and global tracking system to find ‘caches’ that people have hid all over the world. By logging onto a geo-tracking website anyone can get a list of the longitude and latitudes of where the “caches” are hidden. They then use their global tracking system to find their global position and that of the “cache.” A “cache” can be virtual or boxed. A “boxed cache” means that there is something hidden at the location described. When people find a “boxed cache” they may take something from it if they leave something in return. A “virtual cache” means that there isn’t something hidden at the location, but rather that the location is the prize in itself. A “virtual cache” may be something like a hidden waterfall or a spectacular view.

The mating call of a falcon drew crowds to see Bill Streeter of the Delaware Valley Raptor Center with “Raptors of the Delaware Valley.” Streeter’s vast knowledge and relationship with the birds made the show as informing as it was entertaining. A red-tailed hawk, a barred owl, a saw wood owl, and a golden eagle were among the raptors shown.

The day continued with presentations from a storyteller and dancer, severe weather knowledge and the Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

All the while, demonstrations of how pollution gets into the lake, shown with matchbox cars, paint and a spray bottle of water, continued on inside while hybrid cars and a kiddie pool with plastic fish pulled earth lovers outside.

By the end of the day, participants couldn’t wait to get home toput their new knowledge to work designing backyard habitats and going treasure hunting.