Founded in 1970 and celebrated every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the day when millions all over the world call attention to the need for environmental stewardship and justice. Many celebrations were held last Saturday and others will continue through this weekend.

The National Parks movement has also inspired a legacy of community engagement and environmental stewardship. In the Bay Area, on Earth Day, advocates will officially launch the “Parks for All” campaign in conjunction with the forthcoming release of award winning filmmaker Ken Burns’ new documentary series – The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. KQED Public Radio’s Michael Krasny interviewed Burns and a panel of national park experts on April 21 to discuss the roles and significance of diverse populations in our national parks, highlighting untold and forgotten stories.

The first episode of Burns’ six-part series airs September 27, 2009 on PBS.
A sneak preview of the documentary, followed by an on-stage conversation between Michael Krasny, Burns and writer/producer Dayton Duncan will take place at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco this evening on April 22, 2009, but as of now, the event is sold out.

You can watch a preview of the film on the official companion Web site for the series, which launched today:
http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/

You can also follow The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (PBS) on Facebook.

On Earth Day 2009, the war-torn country of Afghanistan also has something to celebrate: the establishment of its first national park. Band-e-Amir, a park located in central Afghanistan, has been called “Afghanistan’s Grand Canyon.”

Read the story in the New Scientist blog: Afghanistan’s tribute to Earth Day 2009.

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Yesterday San Francisco launched RecoverySF.org to highlight the progress of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in the City and County of San Francisco. The idea is to build transparency so communities can track grants that San Francisco has applied for and won, view official correspondence with federal and state agencies and learn about upcoming public meetings.

While it might appear that the City has received awards of close to $300 million for projects ranging from transportation to work force development, these are only projections. The City must apply for and win the competitive grant awards before the money can be channeled to local projects.

The City promises to post announcements when ARRA funds have been fully awarded and obligated to San Francisco.

California and the federal government have also set up Web sites to track stimulus dollars.

The federal site is: www.recovery.gov.

The state site is recovery.ca.gov

For a complete list of all Recovery Act programs, visit Grants.gov.

See my previous blog post on the Recovery Act for more resources.

Nonprofit Strategies for Tough Times: Economic Stimulus Act FAQ (Philanthropy News Digest blog- PhilanTopic)

Updates:
5/21/09: Recovery.org, run by a private company, might make searching and tracking federal stimulus projects easier to follow than the federal government site Recovery.gov, as recently reported in the Washington Post.

5/22/09: The City of Oakland recently set up www.oaklandstimulus.com for tracking the status of the city’s requests for federal stimulus funds.

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