CD: Down to Earth: MSU touts environmentally friendly efforts during celebration

TIM PRATT

A gathering of some of Starkville’s most environmentally conscious minds took place Thursday at Mississippi State University as the 40th anniversary of Earth Day was celebrated around campus.

A percussion ensemble played on the edge of the drill field while a group of Mississippi State students played Frisbee nearby. On Old Main Plaza, between the Colvard Student Union and State Fountain Bakery, children climbed in a tree as their parents sat in the shade, and more than a dozen organizations set up information tables on the edge of the walkway.

The Mississippi Forestry Association and Mississippi State’s Landscape Architecture Department handed out free saplings, while Green Starkville, the Sierra Club and Starkville In Motion gave out information and encouraged students to join. Representatives from BluBox, a division of Triangle Maintenance Service, allowed people to sign up for curbside recycling pickup while about a dozen other organizations talked to passersby.

“Today we are taking a moment to recognize the importance of our environment, energy conservation and the challenges we face as citizens,” MSU President Mark Keenum said during an address to the dozens of students, staff and city officials who gathered around the plaza.

It was part of a weeklong series of events on campus and around town celebrating Earth Day and the sustainability movement as a whole.

City, county and MSU officials on Monday held a groundbreaking at the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum, where students from the university’s Landscape Architecture Department are building a series of self-sustaining gardens using storm runoff to water the plants.

On Tuesday, the Tennessee Valley Authority held a demonstration on thermal energy and energy efficiency.

Mississippi State students on Wednesday planted about 1,000 trees on the north side of campus as part of a reforestation effort.

As part of the Earth Day celebration Thursday, Dumas announced a new initiative, dubbed ECO POW, which will offer a framework and guidelines for MSU departments looking to join in the sustainability effort.

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