Connecting Communities: Kalamazoo Earth Day

Reforest Vine can install a curb garden in one day. Mitch Lettow fills us in on the process and how these tiny gardens impact biodiversity and habitat availability for the smallest creatures.

Stop by the Kalamazoo Valley Museum for an early season tour of their rain gardens. These gardens help keep storm water drains clean, as well as help to keep flood-prone spaces from getting soggy.

Every year, Charlie's P.L.A.C.E. and the Rotary conduct big clean ups in Kalamazoo's Douglass neighborhood and on the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail.

The Edison neighborhood got together for Earth Day to tackle a large dumping site and to plant trees in the space.

Audubon Society of Kalamazoo, Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, and Wild Ones lead us on a Signs of Spring tour for Earth Day in Upjohn Park. Connecting Communities presents a pod short showcasing the presenters as they discussed the natural habitat of the park with participants of the walk.

Connecting Communities pod short with Mike List, a representative of the Edison Resident Scholars group discussing the cleanup on Earth Day at the Literacy Lane and Albert White Literacy Trail.

The first Fun Run hosted by the Winchell and Oakwood neighborhoods to celebrate Earth Day, and Connecting Communities was there to find out all about it!

Edison neighborhood had a seed planting event and Vine did their annual clean up and celebration in the park.

Children's Nature Playscape has a really fun and engaging Family Fun Day each year to celebrate Earth Day! Meet Nature Nate and Daphne Len Ben (author of Queenie Saves the World).

Ian Stewart joins us on the pod to talk about his trash picking project. This guy went from zero experience to being "passionate about picking up trash." He has accomplished some amazing projects and is definitely shaking things up in Kalamazoo's waste world.

We joined Michigan Waterway Stewards to tackle invasive brush and cleanup trash at two of Kalamazoo's parks along the river, Mayor Riverfront and Verburg Parks. Volunteers were lead by team leads to identify and remove invasive species. The Michigan Waterway Stewards will lead a fall event to continue the project at both parks for further restoration.

The Connecting Communities pod spoke with Building Blocks representatives and neighbors as they worked together on neighborhood cleanups across the city.

Kicking off the Earth Day festivities was a clean up at a lot behind Aldi, on Gull Road. The lot had been used by individuals who were living behind the building. When they left, they were unable to clean the space. TrashLoveKzoo took on the challenge and invited the community to join them!

With dozens of programs, there is something for everyone at the Portage District Library! Three librarians join us to share a FEW of the ways you can get involved. It's hard to even write a synopsis at this moment because a list of the programs discussed would be too much. Just do yourself a favor and listen to the show! You will feel inspired and motivated to go see what's happening at Portage District Library.

Hristina Petrovska and Rachel Bair explain the community classes offered at the VallyHUB, including the esteemed Honorable Harvest Lecture Series. This education center is accessible for lifelong learning, without the need to work towards a degree.

https://valleyhub.kvcc.edu/events

Some of the members of the Connecting Communities podcast get together to reflect on their favorite guests and conversations from the first 50 episodes of the show.