Earth Day might have been too soggy for most folks to participate in events celebrating nature, but Keep Polk Beautiful decided that rain or shine, they were still going to show their support for the planet.

KPB added new plantings to flower boxes around the trailhead in Northwest Polk County on Cave Spring Road, connecting local residents to the wider Pinhoti Trail going north and south through a corner of Polk.

Jesse Cook undertook the work with the help of family – bringing their van from The Cook Farm to take part.

The celebration of Earth Day was first recognized on April 22, 1970 and has been the focus of conservation and efforts to tackle climate change since. This year’s Earth Day saw organizers focus their efforts toward pushing for renewable energy and engaging in communities.

Earth Day was originally created to raise awareness of environmental threats while celebrating environmental progress annually. Continued threats to global environmental stability include increasing carbon pollution in the atmosphere, plastics and trash in the oceans to incursion on the Amazon Rain Forest, the largest contiguous forest in the world that is habitat to still unknown species and acts as one of the globe’s largest natural carbon scrubbers.

Keep Polk Beautiful annually undertakes some of those efforts of community engagement, organizing multiple locally-focused cleanups and takes part in events throughout the year.

Want to do something to help mother nature locally? Reach out to Randy Cook at Keep Polk Beautiful at rcook@cedartowngeorgia.gov to learn more.