Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School students who are interested in maritime careers were on the Cuyahoga River and Inner Harbor last week, helping the Port of Cleveland and Argonaut clean debris out of the Cuyahoga River and the Inner Harbor.

Cleveland Sews will host a Sew-A-Thon this weekend at St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center to repurpose 654 pounds of old drapery material into tote bags to combat single-use plastics and promote sustainability.

Now in its seventh year of friendly competition, The Big Clean between volunteers in the City of Euclid and the Collinwood neighborhood spent last Saturday picking up trash and debris in a massive spring cleaning. Read on to find out which community won and how much total trash was collected.

Local artist and muralist Tessa LeBaron has curated an exhibit, "Art for Earth Day," in which 19 local artists have created works made entirely from trash or upcycled materials. The exhibit opens this Saturday, April 27 at Negative Space Gallery with a free reception, and continues through May 27.

Holden Forests & Gardens last week announced that it received $1.8 million from the USDA Forest Service to connect forest landowners with emerging climate markets. The grant is the largest climate investment in history.

The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes recognizes that many people’s green thumbs are itching to get outside and dig in the soil during this cold, dreary period of winter. So, it is hosting a Winter Seed Sowing Workshop, using seeds from the Nature Center's Native Seed Library, to get people ready for spring plantings.

Rust Belt Fibershed will convene textile artists, farmers, and community members at 78th Street Studios this weekend for its first annual Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium to discuss the potential of a place-based, soil-to-soil textile system.

Researchers at Baldwin Wallace University chronicled centuries of decline in the size and diversity of forests in Cuyahoga County. They used aerial photos and forest inventories from early land surveyors to determine the rate of decline and noted the current reforestation efforts to evaluate how the region can grow one-third of its remaining primary forests.

St. Casimir Catholic Church in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood is currently working on the second phase of its green infrastructure plan—installing permeable pavers and other systems to divert rainwater from the storm sewers to help keep Lake Erie clean—thanks to green infrastructure grants from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

Last Friday, Aug. 25 at the Cleveland Rowing Foundation, city officials and organizations celebrated the beginning of the vital next step in the Irishtown Bend project—the stabilization of the banks of the Cuyahoga River to move ahead with a 23-acre park.

Arbor Day is tomorrow, Friday, April 28. In honor of the day set aside for the planting, upkeep, preservation, and celebration of trees, Holden Forests & Gardens has a bunch of activities planned.

Western Reserve Land Conservancy, Ohio’s largest land trust, last year marked 70,000 acres of public and private land in Ohio that is now permanently protected for future generations.
 

The nonprofit Drink Local Drip Tap hit a milestone in October—the organization has collected more than half a million pieces of trash, or more than 15,000 pounds, from Lake Erie's shores.

Garden Valley Neighborhood House last week celebrated a 40-panel rooftop solar array that will save the nonprofit, and largest food pantry in Northeast Ohio, $64,000 in electric bills over five years.

The upcoming Cuyahoga Tree Symposium at the Beachwood Community Center will explore nature-based means for improving the region’s tree canopy and using science-based means to improve the tree-related health of county residents.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District will host a virtual meeting and host an open house at Horseshoe Lake Park in Shaker Heights to present the Doan Brook restoration goals and gather public input on what the park should look like after the restoration.   

Since 2015 Eddie Olschansky has been cruising the Cuyahoga and Lake Erie in his kayak, collecting plastic and other waste that contaminates our natural waterways. After recruiting a group of volunteers, in 2019 he formed the nonprofit Trash Fish to keep the group cleaning effort going strong. 

Volunteers came out in force last weekend for Canalway's annual RiverSweep—picking up more than 23 tons of trash along the Cuyahoga River Valley.