To celebrate Earth Day today, UW-Eau Claire has planned activities that vary from a special education session to physically cleaning up surrounding local environment.

Some of the activities being put on by the Environmental Adventure Center on campus include a Chippewa River cleanup, a tree-planting trip and a special class on fish habitat in the Chippewa River, assistant director of recreation and sport facilities Daniel Langlois said.

Students who wanted to participate in Earth Day events were encouraged to sign up beforehand for the activities they planned on attending, according to the press release. Students and the community are welcome to help in the Chippewa River cleanup. Interested individuals should meet at 3:30 p.m. behind the Hilltop Recreation Center.

Langlois said the university has been doing the river cleanup for a very long time. He also said the tree-planting expedition is expecting to plant 500 oak trees.

Langlois also claimed he felt that Aldo Leopold, an important environmentalist and fellow Wisconsinite, would be proud.

Sophomore Adam Couture can remember participating in Earth Day activities since his youth.

“When I was in elementary school, we (Couture and his classmates) picked up trash around the school,” Couture said, adding that as he grew older, they moved on to places like public parks.

While reflecting on Earth Day’s importance, Couture said the holiday is beneficial because it creates more awareness about being good stewards of the Earth. He said he would like to see even more conservation and cleanup efforts, even involving local businesses.

Sophomore Jonathan Hill has a different perspective on Earth Day and feels conservation efforts shouldn’t be limited to just one day. Hill also said people should work to make preservation of the environment a daily habit.

“Having a day dedicated to bringing awareness may have some people just acting as if environmentalism is important,” Hill said.

Langlois pointed to Wisconsin’s history of environmentalism as he recalled a past event of having Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, speak on campus on its 25 anniversary. With people similar to him and Leopold, Langlois jokingly said “that there must be something in our drinking water” that makes citizens of Wisconsin so active in keeping a healthy and sustainable environment.