Earth Day Beach Cleanups and Events

South Florida is packing Earth Month into one weekend, with beach cleanups, paddles and festivals scheduled from Miami-Dade to the Treasure Coast through Saturday, April 25. (earthday.org) On the Treasure Coast, Visit St. Lucie’s calendar lists an Earth Day paddle on the St. Lucie River for Wednesday, April 22, from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Petravice Family Preserve in Fort Pierce. The same tourism calendar shows Port St. Lucie’s 65th birthday celebration on Saturday, April 25, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., including the Naturally PSL Environmental Stewardship Awards. (visitstlucie.com) The St. Lucie Earth Day Festival was scheduled earlier in the month at Oxbow Eco-Center in Port St. Lucie, with Visit St. Lucie listing a 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. event built around six themed activity areas and local environmental groups. That festival page describes Oxbow as a county-run hub for hands-on conservation programming. (visitstlucie.com) Farther south, Eventbrite listings show an Earth Day beach cleanup at Central Beach in Fort Lauderdale at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 25, at 3109 East Sunrise Boulevard, and a separate “Making Waves of Change” cleanup at North Beach’s Charnow Park at 10:30 a.m. the same day. Those listings are third-party event pages, so organizers’ pages are the best place to confirm meeting points before showing up. (eventbrite.com) Earth Day itself falls on Wednesday, April 22, and EARTHDAY.ORG says the 2026 theme is “Our Power, Our Planet.” The group says this year’s campaign is built around local action and community participation, which is why city festivals, volunteer cleanups and river paddles are clustered across April rather than confined to one day. (earthday.org) The cleanup push tracks a year-round problem on Florida’s coast. NOAA says Florida has almost 8,500 miles of coastline, and plastic containers, abandoned fishing gear and other debris can end up on beaches, in the water and on the seafloor. (marinedebris.noaa.gov) Federal agencies tie that litter directly to beach conditions and wildlife harm. The Environmental Protection Agency says trash and litter pollution affects beaches, coastal waters and estuaries, while NOAA says marine debris harms an estimated 700 wildlife species, including sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals. (epa.gov) (oceanservice.noaa.gov) That is why many of the April events mix recreation with cleanup or education instead of treating them as separate programs. Visit St. Lucie’s Earth Day pages pair festival booths and paddling with lessons on local ecosystems, while EPA beach guidance tells volunteers that preventing trash on land is one of the simplest ways to keep debris out of the ocean. (visitstlucie.com) (epa.gov) For residents looking to join in this weekend, the practical detail is the one that changes fastest: time and meeting point. The broad roundup is in TCPalm’s South Florida events guide, but participants should still check the individual event page before leaving home Saturday morning. (eu.tcpalm.com)