EARTH DAY 2005, "Take a GREAT HIKE with PEEC!"

Our "great hike" is just that - a great journey to create Los Alamos' first-ever Environmental Education Center!

Grand Opening of the Pajarito Environmental Education Center at 3540 Orange Street, Saturday, April 23rd, 10:30a-2p. In celebration of our opening, there will will be stilt walkers, giant Earth Day puppets, door prizes, food by A Taste of New York, and a wide variety of festivities for all ages at the Pajarito Environmental Education Center. All events are free. We look forward to seeing you there!

Children, join the Wise Fool performers at the PEEC Grand Opening by dressing up as a favorite animal, bird, or plant, and receive prizes for your outfits. Masks or cut-outs of various creatures are available at the library (children's section and White Rock), Family Strengths Network, and Art Center at Fuller Lodge. Kids may even want to recycle old Halloween costumes or invent costumes made of recycled materials. Wise Fool will be at the Smith Auditorium parking lot at 9:45 to point the way down Orange Street to the Grand Opening celebrations. Then they'll perform at the PEEC from 11:15-12:00. Bring the whole family!

• Ribbon cutting, 10:30a
• Wise Fool, stilt walker and giant puppet performance, 11:15 - 12:00. Dress in costume and join in on the fun and laughter.
• Face painting
• Make nature note cards with rubber stamps on recycled paper.
• Book signing: Local author, Terry Foxx's new children's book, The Forest and the Fire.
• For sale: Nature note cards by Terry Foxx and PEEC T-shirts
• LA Democrats literature and fair trade coffee and chocolate for sale.
• LA County - Solid Waste Division, table on recycling and ways to avoid harsh chemicals in your home.
• Fur and Feathers Rescue, local snakes, animals, animal tracking game
• Santa Fe Raptor Center, Laura Swartz, non-releasable educational American Kestrel
• Solar Circus, Ben Luce with the NM Solar Energy Association
• Hybrid and electric car display--LAHS parking lot
• LANL Environmental Stewardship Division
• Center for a New American Dream
• Geology Hike, Hike led by Los Alamos Geological Society, 1:00p from the PEEC into Pueblo Canyon
• "Street and Nature" Orienteering Meet , Noon-3 p.m. - New Mexico Orienteers. Competitors and families will navigate the streets and canyon trails of Los Alamos in search of hidden control markers, using only your wits, a map and a compass. Start any time from noon to 2 p.m. Start and finish at PEEC.

What Else Is Happening During Earth Week?

• Clean-up Los Alamos Day, Saturday, April 16. Sponsored by the County of Los Alamos Solid Waste Division. Sign up to participate with Phill Westen or call 662-8383. PEEC members meet to clean up around the center from 9a-noon.
• Bird Banding Demonstration, Saturday, April 16, 8-11a. Meet behind the Pajarito Environmental Education Center. Join Stephen Fettig and others to see birds up close and learn which birds are locals and which are migrating through our area.
• Roadside Litter Pick-up Along Highway 4 with Chris Judson of Bandelier, Sunday, April 17, 4-5p. Meet at the Bandelier ski trail parking lot, near the junction of SR 4 and FR 289 (Dome Road) Somehow lots of litter grows there during the winter, and it's time to do the spring cleaning. 1 hour; wear closed-toes shoes and bring gloves; bags provided.
• 4) 2004 NM Commercial Building and Energy Conservation Code Review, April 19, 9a-noon. Mesa Public Library. Fuller Lodge Pajarito Room. Presenting will be Fermin Aragon, Bureau Chief of Construction Industries Division (CID), and Dan Hagan, Mechanical Engineer for Energy Conservation and Management Division of EMNRD.. 
• USGBC/LEED for New Construction, Wednesday, April 20, 7p. USGBC/LEED for New Construction with additional information regarding LEED criteria for Existing Buildings, Commercial Interiors, and Homes, as well as LEED NC 2.2
• "The Story Basket", Story Telling for School Age Children With Terry Foxx, Wednesday, April 20, 3-4p. WR Branch Library
• "The End of Suburbia" or "The Corporation" Film presented by the LWV , Thursday, April 21, 6:30p at the Mesa Public Library.
• Take a Great Hike with Infants and Toddlers, Friday, April 22. Diana McPherson 9:30a. Meet at Kinnikinnick Park (Aquatic Center Parking Lot)
• Free Main Street Earth Day Concert, Friday, April 22, 7:30p. Los Alamos Community Building. Information tables from several organizations beginning about 6:30. Come enjoy an evening of truly great bluegrass music by Danny Barnes from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. He is a banjo virtuoso and entertaining showman. Sponsored by the Los Alamos Main Street Concert Series. Contact Gordon's CD's
  
• This is what Danny Barnes said about “playing the banjo like an electric guitar” (from www.dannybarnes.com).
  
  ”I started on the banjo. As a composer, the banjo is the "canvass" upon which I work. As an artist, when we decide to put forth an idea, we must consider what format we'll be using. This is a watercolor, this is a pencil sketch. This is a poem. The banjo is more or less my "medium." However, I'm not an anachronistic musician. I'm not dressed up like it's 1945, or something. My work is contemporary. My writing and presentation, are of this time period. I'm trying to develop a modern lexicon for the banjo. So that's why you hear that kind of sound in there.”
• La Mesa Fire + 28 Years- See What It Looks Like!, Saturday April 23, 5:30p. Meet at Ponderosa Campground, near Back Gate. La Mesa Walk led by Chris Judson: 1 hour, easy walk, long pants and closed-toed shoes necessary due to thorns.
• Reforestation Project - Tree Planting with Craig Martin, Saturday, April 23. The Parks Division will hold a volunteer work party for a reforestation project along Canyon Road across from the aquatic center. We will plant aspen trees, shrubs, and seed ground cover. About 3 hours. Contact Craig Martin, PO Box 30, Los Alamos, NM 87544, 661-8480.
• Get to Know a Snake, Saturday, April 23, 11a-2p. Macek Family and friends, downstairs at the library. Pictures taken and drawing for Earth Day items.
• Fire Ecology Hike with Tom Jervis, Sunday, April 24, 1p, meet at Guaje Pines Cemetery.