Kari’s Earth Day 2019: State Park Cleanup

About a month before Earth Day, I got a flyer in the mail for California Parks Volunteer Opportunities. I usually disregard these mailers, but this time I paged through it out of boredom. Surprised that this time they weren’t just asking for cash donations, they had an entire list of volunteer opportunities throughout the state for the weeks around Earth Day. It was simple, I went onto their website, used the interactive map to find an Earth Day event closest to me, and signed up! I didn’t have to worry about my kids because it clearly stated “All ages welcome”!

I was super excited it was so easy to find a Earth Day event for my whole family because last year it was extremely hard to find anything for us, so we simply picked up trash at a nearby trail. While it was fun and my daughter was into it, it’s way more exciting to be a part of a larger group that is working together to help the environment.

We have used this park for hiking biking, and exploring for over 5 years of living in the East Bay, so we are happy we get to give some love back to Mount Diablo. This Earth Day event was in collaboration with Pacific Gas and Electric to focus on wildfire prevention by cutting back brush and clearing vegetation to reduce fire risk. From about 9:30am until about noon, we got dirty and sweaty by using rakes, shovels, and snips clearing out overgrown vegetation around one of the park’s bathrooms and ranger stations. Coffee, snacks, and lunch were provided, another added bonus.