April 22nd, 2005 is the 35th Anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day, which began in 1970, is now celebrated by millions of people worldwide. This year is its 35th anniversary, and around the world, hundreds of thousands of nongovernmental organizations, governments, teachers, and faith-based groups, among others, are making plans to declare that they are part of something extraordinary: a worldwide movement to protect our planet, our children, and our future.

This year, Earth Day Network’s theme is “Protect Our Children and Our Future.”

Get Water-Wise! A little planning can save more than your daisies as warmer weather ushers in the planting and irrigation season.

They are a committed group, an army of broad-brimmed hats, oversized gloves and comfortable shoes. Green thumbs at the ready, they await spring’s arrival on warm, misty, fertile wings. They are gardeners, and they know that planting is more than digging a hole and throwing in some seeds. It’s a finely honed art, and water is a crucial part of their palette.

Tom Wichman is one such seasoned gardener. A Florida Master Gardener Coordinator, Wichman says that proper water usage is vital to ensuring a responsible and healthy garden.

Protecting Your Share of the Local Environment is a Lot Easier than You Think

In Brevard County, “development” is often seen as a dirty word. Everywhere we look in our county, we see another shopping center or tract of houses going up and another tree going down. And for the residents that are already here, it’s easy to look at these new developments as the bad guys when it comes to habitat destruction and environmental impact. The problem with that thinking is that “new” is a relative term. When it comes to the environment of Brevard County, it doesn’t matter whether you built your home last week or whether you built it back in 1854 when Brevard was first established. The bottom line is, every home is taking up space that was once wildlife habitat.

Jim Egan is the Executive Director of the Marine Resources Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the Indian River Lagoon. Jim oversees a staff of twelve scientists and over seven hundred volunteers involved in efforts to preserve our local Marine Resources. Every program is science-based but driven by local volunteers of every age.

These programs are always looking for volunteers: Water quality monitoring, native planting program, brazilian pepper busting, the Right Whale Monitoring Program, the Indian River Lagoon National Scenic Byway Program, the Library of the Indian River Lagoon, the Lagoon House Welcome Center and the public education programs.

Working with Caring Communities
Save the Manatee Club (SMC), the world’s leading manatee conservation organization, is dedicated to protecting endangered manatees and their habitat. Ever since singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett and former Florida Governor Bob Graham founded the nonprofit organization back in 1981, the Club has been deeply involved in numerous efforts on behalf of the manatees. Though the challenges are many, we remain steadfast in our mission to ensure the manatees’ survival. Thankfully, the positive, collaborative support of concerned citizens and organizations in communities everywhere, including in Brevard County, helps tremendously in the ongoing struggle to protect Florida’s official state marine mammal. Through the Club’s work, over more than two decades, manatees have become one of America’s most beloved species. In fact, people from all over the globe are Save the Manatee Club members.

The Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival was created in 1997 to showcase the unique nature, wildlife, and technology in Brevard County. With a comprehensive schedule from sunrise to sunset, participants can explore all our county has to offer while enjoying time with families and friends.

Now in its eighth year, the festival, has grown to become one of the top three premier environmental events in the United States. This major accomplishment would not have been possible without the support of the Brevard County Tourism Development Council, Visit Florida, corporate and organization sponsors and partners, volunteers (speakers, presenters and task performers) and the attendees who participate.

Part of Webster’s definition of guilt includes the statement, “a feeling of shame or remorse due to personal responsibility, real or imagined, for an offense.” Does the responsibility pertain to a sense of inter-connectivity, to mankind, to community, to family or to home?

During a storm should you leave or should you stay? Am I safer “hunkered down” in a safe room or out of town? These were the questions prevalent in the mind of Brevardians and other Floridians during the wrath of ’04 during Charley, Florence, Ivan and Jeanne.

Sandra Clinger is the East Central Florida Regional Coordinator for Save the Manatee Club. We asked her several questions about where we are headed and how Save the Manatee Club positively contributes to Central Florida’s future.

Where do you see Brevard in 5 or 10 years? Where are we headed?
I have lived in Brevard most of my life and I love Brevard. Where else can you see a rocket launch sitting in a kayak surrounded by manatees!

Brevard County turns off its lights during turtle nesting season. No big deal you say? Can you see the implications? Can you imagine the ramifications? To me, it shows a deeper story, a profound quality that sets us apart from so many other communities. To me, it shows that there is yet hope.

A community has come together, and with just a little intentional action we have made a difference. This tiny news-bit is what started GreenBrevard.

Growing up in the Daytona Beach, Florida area, the ocean was always nearby. It was a place to clear my head, to refocus, to dream again.

As a young boy I’d wade out into the waves, usually clutching a cheap Styrofoam boogie board of some sort. With my parents watching from the sands with a half-eaten bucket of KFC, I’d float a short ways from shore, sometimes riding the waves back in, sometimes just bouncing through and over them. As I spent hours on end interacting with the sea, my mind would carve out stories, my persona would shift to that of some make-believe superhero, my lungs would put forth melodies of music I didn’t dare share without the cover of the roaring waves.

The Sea Turtle Preservation Society is a not-for-profit organization in Indialantic, Florida. The purpose of the organization is to help protect sea turtles by educating the public about marine turtles through public outreach. STPS reaches thousands of people each year through lecture presentations, exhibits at area events, and through our turtle watches during the sea turtle nesting season.

The society’s goal is to help maintain the current sea turtle population and to prevent a potentially irreversible decline in those populations through: