This is now a virtual event!
Welcome to the Springfield Museums’ 30th annual Earth Day Festival. Below you will find many resources and activities that demonstrate ways to enjoy the outdoors, learn about the beautiful natural world that surrounds us, and promote conservation through everyday actions. On this 50th anniversary of Earth Day, let us all strive to become better environmental stewards!
Sponsored by
Build Your Own Rain Barrel
Create a Pollinator Garden
Rain Garden Facts
Home Composting Guide
More: Rain Garden Guide, Vermicomposting: Indoor Composting with Worms
Provided by Western Mass Pollinator Networks, University of Nebraska, US Department of Agriculture, Massachusetts Watershed Coalition, and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
Mighty Mini Microbe’s Tale – Color, Read, Create, and Learn
Life in the Soil: Dig Deeper Level 1 (Grades K-1)
Kingdom Animalia: Classifying Animals (Grade 3)
Conte Jr. Refuge Ranger Workbook
More: Life in the Soil: Dig Deeper Level 2 (Grades 2-3), Life in the Soil: Dig Deeper Level 3 (Grades 4-5), Wildlife Drawing Sheet, Endangered Species Word Search, Fresh Water Mussel Maze, Fresh Water Mussel Word Search, Wildlife Sightings List
Provided by US Department of Agriculture, National Association of Conservation Districts, Hampden Hampshire Conservation District, MENSA, and Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge.
Join the Smithsonian online for an Earth Optimism digital event that will showcase stories of both small and large-scale actions that frame the conversation and demonstrate that success is possible. Presentations can be viewed live on the Earth Optimism website, as well as on Facebook Live and Twitter.
Smithsonian affiliation made possible through the generous support of the MassMutual Foundation.
Use this interactive trail map to find the best locations to view birds in the city. Selected by a team of avid bird enthusiasts from the area, including members of the Allen Bird Club, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the US Forest Service and the Springfield Parks Department.
ReGreen Springfield, the Springfield Department of Health and Human Services, the Greening the Gateway Cities Program and the US Forest Service have created environmentally based scavenger hunts in the city, for folks of all ages. The idea is to go out, explore the great outdoors, and learn a bit about the natural world at the same time.
We invite you to take a virtual tour of The Essence of Nature: Paintings by Marlene T. Yu, which opened at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in February 2020. Inspired by the natural world, Yu creates monumental canvases using energetic brushstrokes and vibrant colors, synthesizing Eastern and Western traditions to create immersive abstractions that evoke the power and beauty of nature.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has a regional office in Hadley, wants to help you feel more at home in nature. Your backyard or neighborhood green space offers an extension of “homeroom,” a living lab for stay-at-home science. It’s also a free walk-in clinic — or walk-out clinic, as it were — providing an endless supply of proven physical and psychological health benefits that we need now more than ever.
Honing your observation skills, by Lauri Munroe-Hultman of Williamsburg
Surveying for plants, by Lauri Munroe-Hultman of Williamsburg
Digging into the science of soil, by Bridget Macdonald of Montague
Becoming a citizen scientist, by Lauri Munroe-Hultman of Williamsburg
Living vicariously through backyard birds, by Bridget Macdonald of Montague
Looking through the eyes of nature writers, by Bridget Macdonald of Montague
Identifying invasive plants, by Natalie Didomenico of Amherst
- Concerned Citizens for Springfield
- Connecticut River Conservancy
- ECOS (Environmental Center for Our Schools)
- Gardening the Community
- Greening the Gateway Cities Springfield
- Hampden County Bee Keepers Association
- Hampden Hampshire Conservation District
- Interfaith Council of Greater Springfield
- International Dark Sky Association
- Keep Springfield Beautiful (Great American Cleanup)
- Live Well Springfield Climate Justice Initiative
- Mass Wildlife Angler Education Program
- Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
- Regreen Springfield
- Springfield Department of Public Works
- Springfield Forestry Division
- Springfield Water and Sewer Commission
- Suez Water
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service
- Western MA Master Gardeners Association
- Western Massachusetts Council Boy Scouts of America
