Protect the Environment Every Day

Message from the Overseas Houston Docked at Old Port Tampa

Protecting the Environment at Home: 

Earth Day 2012 was a success in Tampa Bay with many community groups of volunteers organized.
Though I'm accustomed to channel traffic of commercial shipping lines, barges, fishing and sail boats, coast guard and other security traffic, this ship got a second look during Earth Day clean-up on Picnic Island Saturday.

Docked in Old Port Tampa at the entrance to Picnic Island, which runs under Tampa Airport fuel pipes, this line is in-port frequently and all ships are lettered with the "protect the environment" reminder.

Beautiful Egret Wading on Littered Picnic Island Beach

I cleaned up one small section of beach and park for three days Easter week, collecting hundreds of plastic eggs, plastic "grass", flipflops, candy containers, boxes, plastic drink bottles, plastic cups and other refuse left by adults. Most dangerous were the small plastic rings that birds and waterfowl will become tangled or trapped in.

I gave three days to protect this beautiful egret and thousands of other birds whose home is this island estuary. In this photo, taken after my clean-up, the beach is still littered in green plastic grass and at least one plastic jar top I missed.

Pristine Picnic Island Beach

The Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful group volunteered at Picnic Island for Earth Day. As you can see, it's clean again, after the volunteers collected countless bags of litter from in and around the park and playground plants and beach areas. Park staff were on-hand, too.

Another island painter is in this photo. I believe he keeps to himself. If you visit Picnic Island and happen upon me when I'm painting, I'd very much enjoy your stopping to chat. Sometimes I have to keep working while chatting, though, if the winds are high and I'm using acrylic paint-it dries very quickly.


Comments are always encouraged.
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All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:

Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com  my Fine Art America gallery
Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent
www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
Gail Kent Studio Notes  my Tumblr blog site
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
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Gail Kent

Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for nature art prints:
nature prints