Kids, families focus on water stewardship at Gallatin Valley Earth Day Festival
By Helena Dore | Chronicle Staff Writer
Link to Bozeman Daily Chronicle Article
Kids and adults headed to the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture on Saturday to enjoy music, watch short films, participate in fun activities and check out booths for the Gallatin Valley Earth Day Festival.
Business owners, nonprofit members and local officials shared information about watershed stewardship, renewable energy, recycling, wildlife, wildlands and more as the local band ORNJ played for a packed Emerson ballroom.
Children got to see a puppet show, visit a petting zoo, watch short films about water and have their special Earth Day passports stamped at different exhibits. Those who turned in their passports were eligible to win grand prizes from the Great Rocky Mountain Toy Company.
The theme of Saturday’s festival was “Water Stewardship: Past, Present and Future,” in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Anne Ready, chair of the Gallatin Valley Earth Day committee, said most booths were moved inside the Emerson due to snowy weather.
Organizers wanted to make people aware of water quality and quantity problems, but they also wanted to leave them with some solutions, Ready said. There were 30 Earth Day booths in total, and about 750 people were counted as they entered the ballroom.
Random Acts of Silliness hosted a special Earth Day Magic Monster show for children in the Weaver Room from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Bozeman Parks and Recreation hosted an “Adopt a Tree” event at 11 a.m. Kids could get the supplies they needed to plant their own trees at home.
On Friday night, festival organizers hosted a free evening celebration with keynote speakers Shane Doyle and Todd Wilkinson, who was promoting his new book Ripple Effects. Ready said the event at the Emerson was a success, though turnout was lower than expected.
Ellie Newell, head of youth services for the Bozeman Public Library, helped kids create blue and purple sea monster puppets using recycled bubble wrap. Seeing children and families check out the festival was an absolute joy, she said.
“The kids have a ton of creativity,” she said. “I love such a child-focused event that involves the next generation in stewardship of the planet.”
Loreene Reid of the Sacajawea Audubon Society said her organization hosted a bird walk to the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve on the morning of the festival, and the people who joined in got to see Northern harriers.
The nonprofit is working toward restoring the 40-acre preserve and wetland, which sits in the middle of town between downtown Bozeman and Interstate 90. Staff are also advocating for making homes and gardens in town more bird-friendly.
Oakley Strausser, a Big Sky Watershed Corps member who works with the Sacajawea Audubon Society, said wetlands are critical for cycling pollutants, maintaining biodiversity and filling up water tables, which can help combat the impacts of drought.
Having a wetland in the middle of town will be a great way to keep wildlife within city limits, in an urban setting, she said.
Tess Parker, a Big Sky Watershed Corps member who works with the Gallatin Watershed Council, said there are 25 streams and tributaries in the lower Gallatin watershed, and 15 of them are considered impaired because of nutrient loading, sedimentation and E. coli.
To improve the health of the lower Gallatin River and its tributaries, the Gallatin Watershed Council works on restoration and enhancement projects. Staff also participate in the watershed planning process and do education and outreach.
Parker mentioned that the Gallatin Watershed Council and Sacajawea Audubon Society have a Busy Beavers program, which recruits volunteers to take care of rivers and streams in the lower Gallatin watershed and the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve.
Ready said a lot of people don’t know that a significant portion of the water that flows through the Gallatin River is treated effluent, and if growth continues at its current pace, by 2033, there won’t be enough water available in Bozeman.
Due to the predicted drying impacts of climate change, lower snowpacks in the Greater Yellowstone region are expected to reduce water availability in the summer months, which impacts agricultural production, she said.
“We have to do something immediately at a national level,” Ready said. “We know what to do, and we have the tools. It’s just getting people aware enough to create the political will.”