Celebrate Trees! Earth Month Bainbridge Island

The goal of Celebrate Trees! Earth Month Bainbridge Island is to raise awareness of and encourage involvement in Arbor Day and Earth Day events and to inspire everyone to protect our trees, our environment, and our planet all month and throughout the year.

2025 Earth Month Activities

Styrofoam^TM Collection Event, April 19, 10am-3pm, Kitsap County Fairgrounds – This event is free and the only one this year. Kitsap residents are welcome to bring one vehicle load per household. Drop-off will be at the Sheep Barn or the Van Zee Building, at 1200 NW Fairgrounds Rd., Bremerton. Find what to bring and other details here.

Take your own cup anytime, anywhere, as the video below encourages.

Anytime Activities

Drink Like You Live Here – Take your reusable cup when you drink out. Click on the video above.

Earth Month Bingo – Easy actions you can take that add up when you make them a habit. Play by yourself or as a family. Print your own board here.

Nominate a tree – The city has a Heritage Tree Register. If you know of a tree that is especially interesting or exceptional, be it on public or private land, consider nominating it for the register. (If on private property, the owner must consent to the nomination.) Criteria for qualifying trees and the nomination form are found here.

At-home science activities for the outdoors – IslandWood has created a number of activities, songs, and exercises adaptable to any age to help inspire students to explore their own neighborhoods and communities while strengthening observation and investigation skills and deepening ecological knowledge. Check them out here.

Invasive species reporting – Get the invasives species app to help alert state officials to the next sighting of the murder hornet sighting or sprouting of daphne laureola and build their database of invasive flora and fauna.

Citizen Science: Carnivores! – Contribute your sightings to the Woodland Park Zoo’s urban carnivore spotter project, which aims to support communities in facilitating solutions to achieve positive coexistence with carnivores.

Global Amphibian Bioblitz – Seen a salamander lately? How about a spring peeper? Here’s another citizen science opportunity to record your sightings by using iNaturalist. Adding your observations will help researchers, conservationists and concerned global citizens to share information and move forward actions that conserve these incredible creatures for everyone. Read about the Bainbridge Island citizen science newt project here.

Litter pick-up – A year-round activity! If you would like to borrow grabbers for a group cleanup, please email Zero Waste. If you want to get serious about regular pick-ups, consider joining the City’s Adopt-a-Spot program.

Children’s Earth Day Books – Check out this blog page for suggestions.

Earth Day Network – Check out this page for how to take civic, community and individual actions. The Earth Day Network makes it easier for students who want to advocate for change (e.g., getting a pollinator garden, setting up a compost system, making sports sustainable) by offering advocacy packets.

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Click here for Earth Month Bingo to help make every day Earth Day !

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It is with a very heavy heart that I must share that our dearest Bainbridge Island Lorax and Champion of Trees around the world, Dr. Olaf Ribeiro, passed away on August 4, 2024.  He taught so many of us about the fabulous fungi and trees around us and helped protect and save so many trees, not just on Bainbridge Island but around the world. His incredible intelligence and tenaciousness spared many a tree the chainsaw!  His engaging stories, endearing smile, and infectious laugh will be dearly missed.  For those of you who may not already know, Olaf truly was the inspiration for our annual event Celebrate Trees! Earth Month Bainbridge Island.  He approached the Sustainable Bainbridge Board and asked why we, as a community, did not do anything significant to celebrate Arbor Day and Earth Day.  Thus, this full month celebration, incorporating activities and events to honor both, was born.  And we have been doing it every year since thanks to your incredible dedication. individually and through your organizations.  For that, I am incredibly thankful. ~Christine Perkins, Earth Month chair

To more deeply understand the impact of  Olaf’s work with and passion for trees, please read these two moving past tributes from islanders Barb Trafton and Christina Woolf.