5 Ways to Level Up for Earth Day

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications

This Earth Day, April 22, 2021, renew your connection to nature and level up with actions you can take––big and small––that have a lasting impact on the health and resiliency of our incredible home planet. 

Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo

1. Plant something

You can plant something specifically for pollinators or you can plant something for yourself... planting the seed now for a more sustainable world is a family challenge we can all get behind. For inspiration, check out Earth Day Northwest's Next 5 or Common Acre's Green Line or these incredible women who are planting an entire forest.

2. Clean it up

Get outside and pick up garbage with the Great Global Cleanup (sometimes it really is that simple), join millions in going plastic free this summer, clean up your diet to fight climate change, clean up your shopping list and join the clean ocean movement. There's an app for that too.

3. Let your inner community scientist out

Reconnect with nature in your neighborhood with the City Nature Challenge, April 30 through May 3, and represent your community in this global challenge. #CityNatureChallenge. Explore and identify PNW wildlife detected on remote cameras to help Woodland Park Zoo with wildlife research right from your home or record your own local carnivore sightings and explore sightings throughout Seattle! Read up on the links between racial justice and climate change and ways we can do something about it.

4. Let nature inspire you

With ideas for nature play, creative prompts, crafts and games, virtual backpacks and more... our Zoo to You page offers young families a host of activities and learning opportunities for Earth Day and all summer long. Take time to soak up nature and appreciate all that the PNW offers from our snow-capped mountains to our Puget Sound shores with a State Park Free day on April 22, take time to remember you are part of nature too. Listen to a very special virtual concert by Seattle’s City Cantabile Choir, featuring a song inspired by our tiger conservation program, as well as the Salish sea and the threats that all habitats face.

5. Do anything for animals

You can recycle your electronics to save gorillas, you can stop wildlife trafficking here in the PNW, you can make your pantry more wildlife friendly, you can protect endangered tree kangaroos and their cloud forest habitat, you can help us save tigers, you can support snow leopard conservation, you can adopt a hornbill nest, you can do your part to protect our incredible Northwest raptors, you can go all in for carnivores and you can make sure our night skies stay batty. There are so many ways you can advocate for animals and their habitats––it starts with loving them and making time in your life to learn something new about a species––trust us, you'll learn something about you too.

You zoo is green, but we are always working towards being greener! We're inspired every day by your innovative ideas and creative solutions to mitigate climate change, save species and keep our emerald city green at heart. We wish you a nature-filled Earth Day and a greener 2021!

Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo