YAKIMA, Wash. – The third annual Yakima Earth Day celebration took place at Sarg Hubbard Park, welcoming people of all ages to learn about preserving the environment. The event featured various activities and educational opportunities aimed at fostering a connection with nature.

Trevor Hutton, a fish program manager at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, emphasized the importance of engaging with the environment.

“We just encourage people to come out and enjoy natural resources, enjoy being part of nature, and fishing can be a huge part of that, that families and people can enjoy all year round, not just today,” he said.

Hutton explained the department’s involvement in the event.

“We want to help support Earth Day. We want people to have an understanding of our environment and getting out into the environment to fish is part of that and cleaning up our messes. Being part of responsible stewardship of natural resources is all a piece of why we do this event,” he stated.

Another highlight of the celebration was a clothing drive organized by Karina Solorio, a Yakima community organizer with Washington Conservation Action, in collaboration with Poder Latinx. Solorio discussed the impact of the clothing drive.

“The idea of the clothing shop is just to reduce as much of us, as much of our waste as possible while also reusing some of the material that we already have in our community. Yeah, I mean, clothing is kind of one of the biggest wastes and one of the biggest contributors to climate change,” she said.

Solorio also shared her thoughts on Earth Day and reducing waste.

“Educate yourself on things like the idea of the circular economy and kind of removing the idea of overconsumption from our minds. I think that’s a very prominent, especially within younger generations like ours, that we just want to consume because that’s kind of what’s always shown to us in our algorithm and social media and stuff like that. But I think it’s just important that we are mindful of the stuff that we’re buying and consuming,” she added.

The Yakima Earth Day event served as a platform for community members to explore ways to engage with and protect the environment.