Earth Day Spokane

Join the Inland Northwest Trails Coalition and REI at the Fish Lake Trail to celebrate National Trails Day! Come to the trailhead to pick up your 2011 Kids Adventure Journal and clean up the trail for summer recreators. Bring your family, your bikes, your leashed pets, some work gloves, large push brooms and water bottles and be prepared for fun! Once the trail is free of trash and pine needles, you’ll have an opportunity to hike or bike some of the most beautiful and scenic paved trail in Eastern Washington! This is a great chance to be part of a national initiative for good stewardship of our country’s trails, another great time to get dirty for the outdoors.

For questions or to register, use the phone number or e-mail address listed above.

Local botanist and experimental horticulturist Diane Stutzman will discuss the benefits of gardening with native plants. Pre-register in the store or at www.sunpeopledrygoods.com.

The Roots Pursuit is a team bicycle event consisting of 12 challenges located throughout three hubs in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Teams will start from the Shared Harvest Community Garden and bike to the three “hubs” City Park, Phippeny Park and Tubbs Hill. This is a 2-3 person team event.

At each hub, teams will participate in several challenges, which involve physical, mental, and creative skills. Points for each challenge are awarded based on team performance. Teams will complete as many challenges as they can within a two-hour time limit. This is not a strenuous event. No spandex or goggles are needed – just a bicycle, some teammates and a willingness to have some fun! Awards will be given at The Shared Harvest Garden at 12:30. There will be awards for the wackiest dressed team, so be creative!

For more information, or to download a registration form, visit the website or call the phone number listed above.

This event benefits the Community Roots Local Food Share program, which is a volunteer run program that collects and then distributes surplus produce from backyard gardens to the 14 food assistance facilities in our community.

Learn the names of native plants while taking a leisurely hike through a semiarid ponderosa pine forest with lovely wildflowers, an wetter forest habitat that includes hemlock, grand fir and Pacific yew, and a very special creek corridor. If you take take half the walk (2.5 hours), bring water and a snack. If you take the entire walk (about 5 hours), bring water and a lunch. Some steep stretches — wear sturdy shoes or boots. Led by Sylvia Eberspecher.

Sponsored by Spokane Regional Solid Waste Master Composters Program. Marilyn and Chris Carothers, local urban homesteaders and master composters, will lead the group through the best ways to do outdoor composting, covering hot composting techniques, slow composting techniques, and all the basics you need to turn your kitchen waste into compost gold. Register at the store, by phone at (509)368-9378, via email beth@sunpeopledrygoods.com or at www.sunpeopledrygoods.com. Pre-registration required. Space is limited.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an international leader in the cause for clean and healthy waterways, will be in Sandpoint and Spokane.

Kennedy will speak at the Panida Theater (300 N. 1st Ave.) in Sandpoint on Wednesday, May 18. Tickets for the Sandpoint appearance are $15 general and $5 for students.

Kennedy will speak at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox (1001 W. Sprague Ave.) in Spokane on Thursday, May 19. Tickets for the Spokane appearance are $17 general and $7 for students. (In Spokane the tickets include a $2 historic preservation fee.) At the Fox, Kennedy will be introduced by legendary mountaineer Jim Whittaker. Whittaker, the first American to climb Mount Everest, was a close friend.

Tickets can be bought the website listed above.