Children learn about pervious pavement during a previous EcoFest. This year’s celebration is set for Saturday, April 23. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Live music, environmental documentaries, a butterfly show and more are scheduled for this year’s EcoFest, on Saturday, April 23, 2016, in New Bohemia in southeast Cedar Rapids.
Other activities are taking place during Earth Week, in the days leading up to Earth Day on April 22.
Related: Earth Month activities in Iowa City
Trees Forever kicked off Earth Week on Sunday with Tour de Trees, a bike ride that started and ended at breweries and included stops at tree-related points of interest.
Other Earth Week activities include a Woodland Care Day on Monday, April 18; Thomas Park Nature and History Walk on Tuesday, April 19; Noelridge Orchard Fruit Tree Celebration on Wednesday, April 20; Wine, Cheese and Trees on Thursday, April 21; and tree planting at Indian Creek Nature Center’s new Amazing Space campus on Friday, April 22. Find details on the week’s activities on the Trees Forever website.
On Saturday, numerous environmental organizations will join forces for EcoFest, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Cedar Rapids.
A dung beetle metal sculpture greets visitors at a past EcoFest outside of the NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Events include:
11 AM, NOON, 1 PM, 2 PM and 3 PM
MT. TRASHMORE BUS TOURS
Take a 45 minute tour to the restricted area on top of the landfill. Learn about landfill design and technology while enjoying the best view of Cedar Rapids around! Tickets available at the Solid Waste Agency Table (Loading and Unloading in the Geonetric Parking Lot)
11:00am
DESIGN A POLLINATOR HABITAT
With the Top 20 Plants and Master Gardener Becki Lynch. Want to get a fast start in helping our native pollinators? This program will give you solid information on their preferred habitats, what plants are sure to attract and sustain them, and how to design a bed. Location C Space, at CSPS Hall.
1:00pm
TREE MULCHING DEMO
In the New Bo neighborhood with Trees Forever – visit the Trees Forever booth for exact location.
2:00pm LIVE BUTTERFLY SHOW
Alliant Energy presents a live butterfly presentation by Kathleen Ziemer of ButterfliZ of Iowa. Location: Underneath the awning at the NewBo City Market.
3:00pm
LOCAL AUTHOR CONNIE MUTEL BOOK READING
A Sugar Creek Chronicle: Observing Climate Change from a Midwestern Woodland Location: C Space, CSPS Hall, Sponsored by Next Page Books. Connie Mutel, senior science writer and archivist at the University of Iowa’s IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering Center, will read from her new book, A Sugar Creek Chronicle: Observing Climate Change from a Midwestern Woodland. A book-signing will follow at Next Page Books. For more information, contact the bookstore by calling 319.247.2665.
ECO Film Festival at CSPS Hall
12:00pm
THE SECRET WORLD OF GARDENS: HONEY BEES
With their intricate dance of communication, their flight patterns requiring sophisticated navigation and their prolific pollen gathering abilities honeybees are some of the most active and mysterious creatures in the garden. In this short film we intimately explore the role of honeybees in a common garden.
12:45pm
POLLEN NATION
The relationship between man and honeybees goes back centuries to our agricultural beginnings. Every third bite of food on your plate depends solely on the determination of these busy workers. Travel with a family of beekeepers from Minnesota to California and take a look at the industrialization of the honeybee. What is happening and why are they disappearing?
1:30pm
THE MESSENGER
THE MESSENGER explores our deep-seated connection to birds and warns that the uncertain fate of songbirds might mirror our own. Moving from the northern reaches of the Boreal Forest to the base of Mount Ararat in Turkey to the streets of New York, THE MESSENGER brings us face-to-face with a remarkable variety of human-made perils that have devastated thrushes, warblers, orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks and many other airborne music-makers.
See photos from last year’s EcoFest here and for the complete list of events, including entertainment, visit the EcoFest website.
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