Restoring the Planet begins with YOU! 

• Reduce your use of plastic, especially shopping bags & beverage bottles. If unchecked, there will be more plastic than fish by weight in the ocean by 2050. https://www.earthday.org/what-you-can-do-to-end-plastic-pollution/

• Make your yard a mini habitat for pollinators & birds. Make it official with National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat program: http://nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/Certify
• Research what plants monarchs need (caterpillars & adults) and plant a monarch garden at home or school—they need our help. Here’s a good place to start: https://xerces.org/monarchs
• Change the way you get around – walk, ride a bike, carpool, invest in an electric car or at least one with high mpg. Don’t let engines idle in drive-through lanes.
• Compost your food scraps. Get composting started at school. About one third of the trash going to landfills is food waste, and it generates harmful greenhouse gases due to the lack of oxygen available for decomposition. Learn about local composting: https://www.shenandoahgreen.org/composting
• Do you know smokers? Tell them to mind their butts and never throw them on the ground! Cigarette butts are the most common type of plastic pollution in the environment and they are loaded with toxic chemicals that poison waterways and aquatic life. https://www.earthday.org/tiny-but-deadly-cigarette-butts-are-the-most-commonly-polluted-plastic/
• Help birds & small wild creatures by keeping cats indoors. Cats are not a natural part of our ecosystem. It is estimated they kill over 2.4 billion birds each year in the U.S. alone—they are considered the #1 threat to our native birds. Read more from the American Bird Conservancy