Celebrating 10 Years of Community Service on Earth Day

The following post appears courtesy of Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division Ignacia S. Moreno. For the 10th consecutive year, employees, family, and friends of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) have participated in a community service project in celebration of Earth Day at the Marvin Gaye Park in Washington, D.C. This year, on Saturday, April 20, we joined with Washington Parks and People to plant trees and continue work on green urban forestry projects that have brought hundreds of new trees to the area and created a Community Greening Center for the historic neighborhood along Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave. in Northeast Washington.   We continue to be inspired by the renewal of Marvin Gaye Park and the surrounding area due in part to these efforts.   Over the past decade, volunteers have removed countless tires and bags of garbage, cleared and reopened miles of trail and streams, and planted thousands of native trees and shrubs. This year, we expanded the Washington D.C. area’s first native plant nursery (created as a result of ENRD’s past efforts) to support organic food production, planted more trees, worked on trails, and removed invasive species.  We were joined by trainees from Washington Parks & People’s D.C. Green Corps and by the University of the District of Columbia's College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability, and Environmental Sciences, who have joined the effort to make the Greening Center into a model of environmental renewal and health. In the words of the Native American proverb:   “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”   We are proud to celebrate Earth Day by being a part of these efforts to renew and enhance the environment for the D.C. community for generations to come.