All over Pennsylvania you can pick up litter and plant shrubs and flowers around city property. It's part of the Great Pennsylvania Cleanup. The cleanup starts on April 19th and continues through the end of the month. Go to the Web site to find a site near you.


Just outside Des Moines, Iowa you can participate in a prairie restoration project. At the Kuehn Conservation Area you and many others (I've heard at least fifty people live in Iowa) will remove the woody species trying to take over a prairie in the remaking. You'll also learn about prairie grasses and flowers.

Seattle has a number of digging opportunities the weekend before Earth Day. The Seattle Times has laid them out here. A couple highlights include work parties for park habitat at Discovery Park and Ravenna Park. In Woodinville you can restore native plants along the Sammamish River. And in Bridle Trails Park you can help remove invasive plant species. If you'd like to remove an invasive animal species that is your own business.

And in Minneapolis you can help clean up the Mississippi River Gorge. It's a tradition, sponsored by Friends of the Mississippi River.

More events are taking place across the country. If you don't happen to be in Iowa, Utah, Seattle, Minneapolis or Pennsylvania, check your local environmental group's Web site or look at your newspaper's activities calendar.

Happy digging.