Earth Day events fill Lawrence calendar with cleanups, conservation activities

Lawrence is marking Earth Day with a lineup that reaches far beyond a single festival, moving from the Kansas Riverbank to South Park and the Haskell Wetlands. The choices are practical and local: one event targets litter in the river corridor, another invites families into hands-on learning, and others center habitat restoration and Indigenous stewardship in the Wakarusa River Valley.

The biggest cleanup effort is Friends of the Kaw’s 12th annual Kansas Riverbank Cleanup, set for Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Volunteers will meet in the city parking lot at the southeast corner of North Second Street and Locust Avenue before heading to the riverbank below Bowersock Dam. Friends of the Kaw says it hosts six to 10 cleanup events each year and often removes more than 2,000 pounds of debris at a time. The group works with local partners and volunteers along the 173-mile Kansas River corridor, and says it is the only organization focused on in-river debris.

For families and casual visitors, the Earth Day Fair in South Park offered a lighter entry point with a strong educational purpose. The free fair ran April 18 from 1 to 4 p.m. and was coordinated by the Watkins Museum of History and the City of Lawrence. More than 25 local organizations were expected, with earth-friendly crafts and activities spread through the park. Organizers asked attendees to bring one recyclable aluminum can for Cans for the Community, tying the event to a small but direct recycling action. The city set April 25 as the inclement-weather date.

Lawrence also used Earth Day to highlight work at the wetlands. The Wakarusa Wetlands Celebration, hosted by the Lawrence Public Library, Haskell Indian Nations University and Raven Book Store, took place April 18 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Medicine Wheel Earthwork south of the Haskell campus buildings. Daniel Wildcat, Ron Brave and Alex Kimball Williams were among the featured participants, connecting the event to the cultural and ecological life of the wetlands. Organizers asked people to bring a refillable water bottle and a lawn chair or blanket, and to arrive at least 15 minutes early.

Haskell’s programming continued with an Earth Day cleanup at the Haskell Wetlands on April 22 and the Celebrating Mother Earth Traditional Powwow from 6 to 8 p.m. that evening. Haskell Greenhouse and Native Lands Restoration are also involved in restoration work, while the university’s USDA NIFA Equity program for 2025-2026 is focused on land restoration, native garden restoration, seed banking, cultural gardening, workshops and extending partnerships. Lawrence Transit added another civic marker, saying its electric buses are part of the city’s Earth Day outreach after three consecutive Low-No Emissions grants and a plan to convert the 50-bus fleet to zero emissions by 2035.