Across the state Michiganders are taking part in projects to mark Earth Day, and not all of them are taking place far away from the state’s urban centers.
In Saginaw, dozens of volunteers are spending the day cleaning up vacant lots. It’s part of a larger program to put in plants that attract pollinating insects and wildlife across the city.
Zachary Branigan is the executive director of the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy.
He says there’s a wildlife corridor that goes right through the city of Saginaw and Bay City, up and down the Saginaw Valley.
“We’ve been doing large scale pollinator habitat work on nature preserves and things around the region,” says Branigan.
Branigan says there’s a lot of land in Saginaw that was being under-utilized.
The conversancy is turning 1,500 vacant lots in the city of Saginaw into places that will attract wildlife and improve struggling neighborhoods.
Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970.
