Penticton hosts its first-ever Earth Day celebration

As Earth Day celebrations took place across the world on Saturday, the City of Penticton took part in its first-ever.

From 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., residents were encouraged to stop by Gyro Park to take part in a variety of interactive games, to learn about the city’s natural environment and to discover how to become more sustainable as a community.

“We’re here to discuss recycling, as well as our blue-sky transportation fund,” said David Kassian, the city of Penticton’s sustainability supervisor.

“We have a couple of funding sources for businesses and apartments to get bike racks, as well as EV-ready studies to find out what it takes to get electric vehicle charging (station) at your existing apartment building.”

Furthermore, residents also had an opportunity to give their input on an interactive map, to indicate where they would like to see improvements to the city’s active transportation infrastructure.

Kassian said the city was looking for input on things like where it could put washrooms, or where it could locate water bottle filling stations or bike racks. “We’re getting a lot of feedback that will help us do future planning on that initiative, too.”

Earth Day also marks the launch of Penticton’s “Official Communi-Tree Plan,” where residents were asked to share their thoughts on where Penticton needs more trees, to help support the city’s urban forests.

“The whole purpose of the OCTP is actually providing a strategic framework for the city and for the next 20 years, and then also providing some education to the community of where we are today and where we are in the future,” said Ysabel Contreras, the city of Penticton’s parks planning and capital projects coordinator.

“In the next month or so, we’ll also be proceeding with our community engagement, which will have all of our next steps for this project.”

Penticton resident Heather Allen and her husband said they spent the morning biking to various Earth Day celebrations around the South Okanagan. She says thanks to the city of Penticton’s continued support of green transportation, she no longer relies on driving a motorized vehicle to get around town.

“I was just emailing back and forth with my accountant earlier, and he asked me, ‘How much do you use your car for your self-employment?’ and I said, ‘none,’” Allen said.

“I can bike everywhere now, especially with my e-bike, so whenever I go to my office or to a boardroom, it’s by bike.”

Allen does however have a suggestion when it comes to how Penticton can encourage more people to hop on a bike and reduce their carbon footprint: “Earlier, I was speaking about my dad. He’s 82 and has an electric bike, but one thing that’s stopping him is he’s afraid to lock it up. So more infrastructure for safer bike storage would be fantastic.”

Earth Day was originally created by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970, after a massive leak spilled millions of gallons of oil off the coast of California the year prior, killing thousands of birds and other marine life.