Over 300 vendors, residents and visitors came together under the sun at Buckley Park on Saturday for Durango’s annual Earth Day celebration.
The party at the park was preceded by Earth Day Durango’s second annual Procession of the Species, a walking parade on Main Avenue from College Drive to 12th Street.
At 10:30 a.m. Saturday, about 13 groups marched to the park. Participants young and old dressed in colorful animal costumes while representing their organizations.
Earth Day Durango organizers led the procession with their signature banner that reads “Earth Day,” “1 Planet” and “1 Chance.”
Behind them, five members of Durango Botanic Gardens rocked their banner and carried colorful bouquets.
Procession spectators and Durango residents Beth and Ayla Conners said they rode their bikes to Main Avenue to enjoy the calm weather and check out the festivities at Buckley Park.
“We’re pretty Earth-friendly,” Beth Conners said, adding she rides her bicycle to work and has reusable bags. “ … We’re just hoping that people wake up and figure out that if we don’t change for (Ayla’s) generation or the next generation behind her, the Earth will definitely not be the same.”
She said she is vegan, she composts and she plans to xeriscape her lawn. She uses an electric road bike to get around, but she drives her truck in the wintertime or when she’s going paddle boarding and needs to transport her equipment.
She uses the transportation that fits her needs, and her gas-guzzling truck isn’t always necessary.
“I tried to be conscious of that,” she said. “I’m not sure that everybody is.”
Ayla Conners said she hoped to learn a thing or two about sustainability in Durango on Saturday.
La Plata County Commissioners Marsha Porter-Norton and Matt Salka were spotted in the procession waving at spectators.
Representing Durango Montessori School, children and adults dressed in gorilla and monkey costumes. Several young girls were dressed as ladybugs and bumblebees.
Someone wearing a Sasquatch costume led the Great Old Broads for Wilderness group.
Indivisible Durango, Mountain Studies Institute and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango also participated in the parade.
Advocating for Proposition 91, a ballot proposal that would prohibit trophy hunting and trapping of mountain lions, bobcats and lynx, marched in the procession with petition forms in hand.
A group of cyclists followed closely behind them. One girl riding in a children’s bike trailer chanted, “Go green team!”
Albuquerque resident Sara Wenz was in Durango for an early Mother’s Day weekend trip she takes annually with friends. She’s been married for 12 years, and she and her husband always plant a tree on or near Earth Day. Her husband has been doing it even longer.
“It’s a beautiful day, but it’s also because we love the planet,” she said. “We love planting things ... and it makes us feel happy being outside.”
Wenz and her husband always plant something that can sustain itself in New Mexico’s arid climate.
Frank Dean, co-owner of 4 Corners Worm Farm, had his booth and worms set up at Buckley Park on Saturday morning. He said just 10 pounds of worms can keep 1,000 pounds of garbage out of the landfill every year by eating that garbage.
“If you feed them garbage and trash, they turn it into the best soil,” he said. “It’s all about microbiology and getting back to the way the nature did it. … The Great Plains were great for years before we showed up.”
He also said overgrazing with buffalo herds hurt the soil health of the Great Plains. Worms themselves aren’t the largest contributor to strong soil health, but they do land roughly in the middle of the spectrum of factors.
The biggest contributor to soil health is microorganisms and fungi.
“Worms don’t make the soil good. Worms go where the soil is good,” he said.
Just a handful of earthworm varieties contribute to composting. He said they live in shallow soil, just 5 to 6 inches deep, and they eat the soil and deposit castings that are nutritious to plants.
Durango Tool Library, which is hosting a repair cafe on Sunday, was also present at the park on Saturday.
Tenny Webster with the tool library said the organization contributes to sustainability because it offers a shared resource of tools that are well managed and maintained. The tools are at the library when one needs them, and they receive more use than an individual’s tools that might collect dust 363 days out of the year.
“As long as people are sharing from a common pool of tools so to speak, they’re not having to go out and buy individual tools,” he said.
Kathleen Goller said people can rent up to eight tools at a time and the library is accessible through a membership. She and Webster were at the park on Saturday to celebrate Earth Day and recruit new members.
cburney@durangoherald.com
