Earth Day 2024: Community Spotlight

Happy Earth Day 2024!

Individuals and groups around the world celebrate the Earth today to call attention to conservation and sustainability in the modern world.

And Earth Day is happening right in our backyard here in Northeastern Pennsylvania!

On the morning of Saturday, April 13, volunteers from multiple local organizations came together to clean up Kingston’s Nesbitt Park and plant trees in honor of Earth Day.

The event was a collaboration between Junior Leadership Northeast, the Wilkes-Barre Riverfront Parks Committee, the Suskie Bassmasters, and students from King’s College and Wilkes University.

Wearing my biggest metaphorical Wilkes-Barre POWER! hat, I stopped by the cleanup on that chilly and breezy day to talk to some folks, learn about conservation efforts in the area, and ultimately spotlight it all here for our readers.

I arrived on the scene to a flurry of activity, with volunteers everywhere picking up trash, gathering garbage bags, and planting trees that included swamp oaks, American lindens, Kentucky coffeetrees, and sycamores.

As I looked for someone to bother, numerous people directed me to a gentleman they said was the person to speak to if I wanted to learn about the Riverfront Parks Committee: John Maday, the group’s executive director.

John, they said, could tell me decades of stories of his work in local conservation.

And so it was. John recounted how he got his start in 1990, when he joined a group of volunteers that came together to clean up trash in the Kirby Park Natural Area that now lies between the river and the dike.

The City of Wilkes-Barre formed the Riverfront Parks Committee in 1991, and John’s been with it ever since, serving as president for a time before taking on his current role of executive director.

Over the years, as the Committee has put countless hours into preserving the natural beauty of Nesbitt Park, Kirby Park, and the River Common, John and company have also taken on the mantle of teaching the area’s youth about the importance of environmental conservation.

Every year in the leadup to Earth Day, the Riverfront Parks Committee hosts hundreds of elementary school students at Nesbitt Park to explain their work and show them the beauty of the nearby Olmstead Trail (this year’s student day was this past Friday, April 19).

John recounted that many former students have approached him as adults to tell him how much his lessons meant to them all those years ago.

These days, the Committee plans annual events along the Susquehanna such as the dragon boat races and Riverfest (on Friday, June 21, at this year’s Riverfest, the Committee will host a free screening of the documentary Agnes about the 1972 Agnes Flood).

I could have listened to John’s stories for a few more hours, but they pulled him away from me to take a group photo (although one fascinating tidbit he managed to share before he left was that the reason the trees were being planted in their specific places was because, as they grow, their roots will bulk up and ultimately strengthen the bank to prevent it from eroding into the water).

Left alone again, I wandered along the river as the volunteers made surprisingly quick work of the trash cleanup and planting.

A few other helpful participants told me I should definitely talk to that guy over there from the Suskie Bassmasters, the nonprofit catch-and-release bass-fishing club based out of Nesbitt Park.

“That guy” turned out to be Christian Ostrowski, the club’s treasurer and a longtime employee of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Christian explained how the club hosts bass fishing at the park every Wednesday evening and tournaments for members every June through September. Those tournaments are legitimate events, from what I learned. The club grills hot dogs and burgers right next to the weighing table where they judge each angler’s catch before releasing it back into the river.

But the environmental focus is never far from the Bassmasters’ minds. Christian pointed out the numerous solar light posts along the road and parking lot at Nesbitt. “We maintain all those,” he said. The club also cleans the boat launch ramp in the park to keep it clear for emergency vehicles.

And what kind of progress have the Bassmasters seen over the years from their efforts?

“Recreational boat traffic has increased, “Christian said. “We collected 40 bags of trash the first year, in 2011. The tires and propane tanks up and down the shoreline were a problem for boaters. We haven’t seen that much since. This year was a good year.”

Christian said the Bassmasters have noticed the volume and quality of fish in the river have increased exponentially in the last decade, a testament to the effectiveness of their work.

The last person I got to talk to before the volunteers broke up was Rachael Stark , NEPA Program Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) and the vice president of Wilkes-Barre POWER!

Rachael told me PEC regularly works on cleanups with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources as well as the Master Gardener volunteers of the Penn State Extension.

PEC contacted the board of the Riverfront Parks Committee to collaborate on this Nesbitt Park cleanup. Rachael had never worked on this particular cleanup before, but she said the volunteer turnout was better than at many others she has seen over the years.

It was now mid-morning, and Nesbitt Park was growing quiet. The work was done, and folks were heading home to get warm.

But this story still needed a finisher.

As the cleanup and tree planting were meant to observe Earth Day 2024, I thought I’d hit the environmentally conscious Rachael with a sentimental question: what does Earth Day mean to you?

“To me, the annual celebration has played a pivotal role in inspiring new growth and change, fostering human-land connection, and reminding us that there’s always going to be beauty on this planet that’s worth fighting for. Each Earth Day, I take an opportunity to reflect on the enlightening experiences I’ve had in nature, what motivates me to be a champion for the Earth, and how I can positively influence people to be better environmental stewards.”

And with that, the 2024 Nesbitt Park Earth Day cleanup was over. The park looked beautiful. The boat launch was clear for takeoff. And the freshly planted saplings gazed over at their thick-trunked ancestors, vowing to match them one day no matter how long it takes.

It was a pleasure to get the scoop on this cleanup for Wilkes-Barre POWER! that Saturday. It’s our honor to cover the activities of local nonprofits and other charitable organizations that are doing great things here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Thank you to everyone who spoke to us for this feature, and happy Earth Day from the entire POWER! team!

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Written by Michael Ruth

Michael is a professional writer and digital marketer whose areas of expertise include SEO writing, ghostwriting, brand storytelling, and thought leadership. He is the founder and CEO of 1900 Digital Marketing LLC.