Bellmore-Merrick celebrates Earth Week

With guinea fowl scampering through the underbrush and Nigerian dwarf goats bleating in the background nearby, Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray welcomed Ilene Robinson's third-grade class from Levy-Lakeside Elementary School to the Levy Preserve in Merrick on Wednesday, one day before Earth Day.

With the midday sun beaming down, Murray played environmental educator for a little more than an hour with this group of 20 eager-to-learn youngsters.

Murray, a Republican from Levittown who has made environmental conservation a cornerstone of her administration, noted that Earth Day has expanded into Earth Week in recent years. U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, organized the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, to raise awareness about the need to protect the environment. Now millions annually take part in Earth Day celebrations around the world.

With big photographs on easels to help illustrate her lesson, Murray spoke about Hempstead's efforts to increase residential recycling, as well as to reduce the town's use of electricity produced at fossil-fuel power plants by installing alternative-energy sources wherever possible, including solar panels on Town of Hempstead Hall.

Then the children got to pet the dwarf goats, which Murray said act as natural lawnmowers at the preserve. The goats, she noted, do not emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases the way a gasoline-powered mower would.

"A very, very special welcome to you. This is really a very special place. It even shares a name with your school," Murray said referring to the 50-acre nature preserve, named for the late Sen. Norman J. Levy, a Republican from Merrick and a staunch supporter of environmental legislation in the Senate. She was joined by Town Clerk Mark Bonilla, Councilwoman Angie Cullin and Sanitation Commissioner Richard Ronan.

It was one event among many throughout the Bellmore-Merrick community held in celebration of the Earth this week.