FAMILY OUTING
THE COLORING MURAL AT THE HOUSTON ZOO
Earth Day celebrations teach kids about the environment.
Every family has one. A drawer that’s become a graveyard for defunct cellphones and obsolete chargers. We can’t bring ourselves to toss out the tangled mess but are hard pressed to explain why we’re holding on to it.
The Houston Zoo suggests you mark Earth Day this year by recycling your devices at their Party for the Planet. The zoo’s smartphone drive is year-round but will be spotlighted at Saturday’s event, along with other recycling initiatives.
According to the zoo, handheld devices contain tantalum, which is derived from coltan and mined in parts of Africa that are home to gorillas and chimps. The mining disrupts their habitats and leads to population decrease.
Using the zoo’s on-site bins to recycle cellphones, MP3 players, tablets, handheld gaming devices, chargers and headsets means less of the metal needs to be mined to make new devices, says Lauren Wappler of the zoo.
Event demonstrations will teach kids how plastic grocery bags can be mistaken as jellyfish and ingested by sea turtles, making them sick. Staff will use the lesson to explain why the zoo is free of plastic bags, plastic water bottles and straws.
There’s a public art project in the form of a reusable animal mural to which kids can add their handiwork.
Wappler says the favorite element of the annual event is the ladybug release. At several intervals throughout the day, a zoo horticulturist will release hundreds of ladybugs at the on-site gardens, giving kids a chance to get covered by the pollinators then help them land on native plants. They can ask questions of the horticulturist, who will discuss how alternatives to pesticides help the planet.
A “race to recycle” competition challenges kids to be the first to put recyclable materials in the right bin before crossing the finish line. Other highlights include a DJ and dance party, earth-minded scavenger hunt and free tree sapling giveaways — while they last.
Plant sale
Sapling giveaways are part of the fun at the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center’s Earth Day festival, also taking place on Saturday. This year, the Earth Day celebration aligns with the spring native tree and plant sale, which Christine Mansfield says will be the largest to date.
Mansfield hopes the sale helps
Houstonians learn which plants, trees and shrubs thrive in Houston’s climate.
Wildlife prefers native plants to nonnative ones, so planting them provides migrators a stop off on their journeys over Houston and will attract birds and pollinators to your backyard, she says.
On nature hikes at the event, families might spot birds, herons, bullfrogs, dragonflies and box turtles. There will be face painting, planting demonstrations, recycled craft-making, including newspaper hats, and a mini market with local produce for sale.
Forget jogging, try “plogging”
At Memorial Park’s Earth Day celebration on Saturday, families can participate in “plogging,” picking up litter while jogging. Event organizers will provide bags and gloves for those who want to hit the trails to pick up trash they find.
At 10 a.m., Memorial Park Conservancy staffers will lead a onehour hike for kids ages 8-12.
The park has more than 30 miles of hiking trails, “which is unbelievable for being smack dab in the middle of Houston,” she says.