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Love Our Lakeshore: Join us for our Earth Day 2025 event, 10 a.m. Saturday, April 26th, Bayfield Library
April 21, 2025
There is no denying it any longer: as the world looks to mark Earth Day 2025, our national parks, forests, and lakeshores are under attack as never before. Mass firings, layoffs, budget cuts, altered priorities, and more have put the places we love under unprecedented challenges. We are living in difficult times.
But it may also be worth remembering that Earth Day itself was born out of difficult times.
1969 Santa Barbara oil spill aerial photo – Mary C Rabbitt, USGS
On January 28, 1969, well #21 on Union Oil’s platform A in the Dos Cuadras offshore oil drilling platform blew. Located 5.5 miles southeast of Santa Barbara, California, the accident resulted in the release of over 4 million gallons of oil into the ocean in what would become the largest U.S. oil spill at the time. With no Environmental Protection Act yet in place, no Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, the nation was left without legal or regulatory mechanisms to protect the environment. That oil would foul more than 100 miles of California beaches, kill at least 3,686 sea birds, uncounted sea mammals and more. It would also, however, galvanize a nation in the need for action. One of those moved to act was Gaylord Nelson.
Nelson, then a U.S. Senator, happened to be in Santa Barbara that summer for a water quality conference. He was able to view the spill from the air. What he witnessed deeply moved and saddened him. There was also anger about how few resources there were for the public to learn about the dangers posed to the earth by unregulated industry. “It suddenly dawned on me,” he recalled later. “Why not a nationwide teach-in on the environment?” The idea for Earth Day was born.
Today, that idea has grown into the largest non-secular gathering on the planet with over a billion people participating in more than 193 countries.
The theme for this, the 55th Earth Day, is “Our Power, Our Planet” to shine the focus on renewable energy and the global action to combat climate change. There will be tree-planting events, trash cleanups, concerts, lectures, and more in some 550 cities around the globe both on Earth Day and all this week.
Earth Day 2025 poster features a solar panel surrounded by lush nature and a clear sky – Alexis Rockman
Here in the Apostle Islands, we will always have a special connection to Earth Day since Gaylord Nelson, the father of Earth Day, was also the driving force behind the legislation to protect these islands. This year, Friends of the Apostle Islands will be shining a bright light – a lighthouse beacon if you will – on this very special place and on the people dedicated to protecting our national lakeshore through our “Love Our Lakeshore” Initiative.
Join us at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 26th at the Bayfield Library where we will share refreshments and stories about our love for these islands, gather photographs and quotes to be used in our on-going series on our website and social media, and distribute free “Love Our Lakeshore” yard signs in an effort to “share the love” of our national lakeshore with friends and neighbors. (Yard signs are free but donations will be welcome).
Jeff Rennicke assembles yard signs with cardboard cutout of Gaylord Nelson behind him – Jill Rennicke photo
These are difficult times. Yet, in the spirit that gave birth to the original Earth Day more than 50 years ago, we hope that Earth Day 2025 can begin to shine a light on the many positive things that can rise out of the challenges we face. Join us at 10am on Saturday, April 26th at the Bayfield Library and help us “Love Our Lakeshore.” If you want a yard sign for your yard but can’t make the event, contact us at info@friendsoftheapostleislands.org or 715-449-6900. You can also use the link to share your story of hope and love for the Islands this Earth Day for our website.
Happy Earth Day 2025
Jeff & Jill Rennicke, Executive Directors
Images from this year’s event
Executive Director Jeff Rennicke leads a discussion in the Bayfield Carnegie Library
Executive Director and chief storyteller Jeff Rennicke with hands outstretched in front of a map of the Apostle Islands
Friends picking up yard signs and talking with each other
Friends standing on a library staircase holding Love Our Lakeshore signs
Love Our Lakeshore yard sign graphic with QR code
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