{"id":22533,"date":"2025-04-24T22:37:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-celebrates-earth-day\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:14:13","slug":"montezuma-county-celebrates-earth-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-celebrates-earth-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County celebrates Earth Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Students
Students at Battle Rock School off Road G pose after their annual Earth Day cleanup. This year, students picked up 308 pounds of trash in one class, and 194 pounds in another. (Abbie Herring\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Since 1970, Americans have celebrated Earth Day.<\/p>\n

Its premise is simple: \u201cfight for environmental causes and oppose environmental degradation,\u201d as concluded in a story <\/a>published in the Library of Congress.<\/p>\n

At that time, in 1970, people were challenged to approach the cause \u201cwith the same energy that they displayed in opposing the Vietnam War,\u201d that story said.<\/p>\n

The most recent holiday on Tuesday, April 22, marked 55 years of Earth Day, and community members in Montezuma County gathered with gumption to clean the beautiful place they call home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encouraged folks to clean up the open spaces,\u201d said Asialynn Hager, the events and marketing specialist for Cortez Parks and Recreation. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to build responsible visitation in the parks \u2026 a clean your parks day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citywide in Cortez, there was a volunteer cleanup in the parks, the first of its kind here, on Earth Day.<\/p>\n

Hager said that 20 or so people went to the Recreation Center to gear up with jersey gloves and trash bags; if it\u2019s deemed successful by the parks committee at its monthly meeting, she said the cleanup could become an annual event.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few organizations even latched onto it,\u201d said Hager.<\/p>\n

The Children\u2019s Kiva Montessori School cleaned Centennial Park, a place its students frequent for recess and gym class, too. Friends of the Carpenter, a local woodworking volunteer group, cleaned up Carpenter Trail. Suburban Propane, a nationwide company with a location in Cortez, cleaned up Denny Lake Park.<\/p>\n

\"Suburban
Suburban Propane workers cleaned Denny Lake Park in Cortez on Earth Day. They chose it since they felt, after consulting with Cortez Parks and Rec, that that\u2019s where they could have the most impact. (Sarah Cox-Stewart\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt sure beats being in the office,\u201d a Suburban Propane worker said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

They said they were pleased at how little garbage they found at Denny Lake, though they were able to pick up some forgotten fishing lines, things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trash was way worse by the highway,\u201d a Suburban Propane worker said, nodding at U.S. Highway 160.<\/p>\n

Students at Battle Rock School down the canyon off scenic Road G reported the same phenomenon: more trash along the roadside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a ton of trash down the steeper part of the road,\u201d said Noela Maloney, a student at Battle Rock.<\/p>\n

To retrieve one bottle, a group of students formed a human chain, interlocking their hands, one linked into the other, to lower a classmate far enough to grab it.<\/p>\n

\"Students
Students at Battle Rock School form a human chain to retrieve a hard-to-get beer bottle. (Abbie Herring\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After all, \u201cthere\u2019s a competition about it among classes,\u201d a Battle Rock student named Ollie Martin explained.<\/p>\n

This year, one class collected 308 pounds of trash, and another got 194 pounds.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t all trash they found.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found a pair of sunglasses,\u201d said Martin.<\/p>\n

One of Maloney\u2019s friends \u201cfound a lucky coin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students said they felt \u201csad\u201d and \u201cconfused\u201d at the sight of all the trash they saw.<\/p>\n

Abbie Herring, a support staff member at Battle Rock, said the school always does a big cleanup on Earth Day. Throughout the year, they do several smaller scale campus cleanups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe canyon community is intentional about taking care of this area. We make sure it\u2019s cared for,\u201d Herring said. \u201cThe canyon tries to take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, Battle Rock was the meeting place for a cleanup<\/a> that Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance put together, in partnership with Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Battle Rock School and Osprey Packs to all meet and clean the canyon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volunteers cleaned parks in Cortez; Battle Rock students cleaned on Road G<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77752,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22533\/revisions\/77752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22533"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}