There’s no better way to spend Earth Day than in the great outdoors. Need ideas for getting out into nearby nature? The Sierra Club has more than 5,000 chapter and group volunteer outings leaders from coast to coast, leading all manner of trips—and local outings are free of charge. Whether you're looking for a strenuous hike, an easy stroll, or something in-between, you're bound to find a local outing that fits the bill.

See the local outings happening near you.

As we look forward to Earth Day on April 22, now is a great time to start planning how you want to celebrate. Maybe you’re planning to take a hike, a bike ride, or a paddle. Or maybe you’re organizing an Earth-friendly picnic, putting on your own green film festival, or hosting a letter-writing party to elected officials. Want more suggestions?

Here are 10 ideas to help get you started.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced its intention to strip gray wolves of all endangered-species protections in the lower 48 states. Gray wolves are just starting to recover after teetering on the brink of extinction. In Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, where they have already lost federal protections, more than 3,200 wolves have been killed through sport hunting, shooting, and trapping just since 2011.

Momentum has been steadily building in support of the Green New Deal resolutions championed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey. More than a hundred members of Congress now support the Green New Deal. But the key to its success isn’t inside the Beltway; it’s in our communities. That’s why the Sierra Club is joining the student-led Sunrise Movement in a national Green New Deal tour with town halls and rallies in over 300 communities around the country.

Landowners in the border zone north of the Rio Grande are fighting to keep the federal government from seizing their land to clear the way for President Trump's border wall. In Texas alone, more than a thousand mostly Latino landowners—some of whose families have lived here since before the U.S. was founded—stand to lose their property under eminent domain laws. “If we can’t make a deal, we’ll take the land,” Trump threatened during a recent visit to the border.

Kevin Horan’s new book, Goats and Sheep, is part of the photographer's ongoing project to “look at animals as people, people as animals, and the planet as a very small place.” We’ve culled a selection of Horan’s best shots.

Team Sierra and Parks Project are excited to share the exclusive 2019 Earth Day t-shirt! Create a fundraising page with Team Sierra, and ask your friends and family to donate to protect our planet on your behalf. Raise $35 or more to earn your shirt. Show off your shirt while you celebrate our planet on Earth Day weekend, April 19-22. Go for a hike, host a planting party, clean up your local park!

Create your fundraising page here.

Was climate change the cause of last month’s “bomb cyclones” and catastrophic flooding in Nebraska, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Iowa? No one can say for sure, although the magnitude of recent storms, floods, and wildfires—and the fact that the 18 hottest years on record have all been since 2001—certainly suggest a correlation. “Climate change is here,” says Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. “We can't stop the rain if it comes, and we can't stop the rivers from rising...

“What we can do is help people affected by these disasters now.

When McDonald’s stopped using plastic foam cups and containers at the end of last year, it left Burger King as the largest fast food company that hasn't yet committed to getting rid of the toxic plastic product. Foam packaging is one of the most polluting forms of plastic, as it’s produced using chemicals that have been linked to cancer, neurological damage, and leukemia.

Let Burger King know you won't be having it their way until they stop using plastic foam.

President Trump's proposed budget cuts would slash the EPA budget by nearly one-third, roll back auto emissions standards and protections against toxic pollution, bail out corporate polluters, reduce Department of Interior funding by 10%, cut back on water infrastructure investments, eliminate cleanup programs… the list goes on. Luckily, presidents don't set the final budget, Congress does.

Tell your members of Congress to protect our air, water, public lands, and climate.

Darkness is an increasingly rare commodity these days, with tens of millions of city dwellers no longer able to see anything but the moon, a few planets, and a smattering of stars. But one astrophotographer has learned how to break through the light pollution to tease out the intricate color and detail of our galaxy.

Get a glimpse of our galaxy's most distant objects.

For going on four years, Sierra Club activists in South Florida have been working with like-minded elected officials to block drilling on privately owned land in the Everglades. The exploratory oil drilling would jeopardize a recharge zone for the Biscayne Aquifer, the primary drinking water source for more than six million people. “If there’s a spill, it would be a disaster,” says Sierra Club organizer Diana Umpierre.

"[But] there’s more at stake than clean drinking water."

The EPA has been allowing growers to spray pesticides that are toxic to honeybees and other pollinators by using a loophole to bypass standard environmental review and public comment, according to a report by the Center for Biological Diversity that’s been generating a buzz. .

Find out more about the EPA’s bumbling regulation of toxic pesticides.

Replacing old incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent and LED bulbs saves energy, cuts down on pollution, and keeps money in consumers’ pockets. Lightbulb standards put in place by the Obama administration would save customers billions of dollars and reduce energy waste by 140 billion kilowatt hours—equivalent to the energy produced by 45 coal plants. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who once sought to abolish the agency he now heads, wants to block efficiency standards for lighting.

Tell the Department of Energy to keep energy-efficiency standards for lightbulbs on the books.

Helium—you know, the stuff that makes birthday balloons float—is a rare byproduct of natural gas extraction. Its price has risen by 250% over the last decade, and the Trump administration is champing at the bit to start drilling for the lighter-than-air element on public lands—including inside our national parks.

When Bill Arthur left for college, a family friend urged him to steer clear of three things: Godless commie professors, marijuana, and the Sierra Club. “I had never heard of the last one, so was immediately intrigued,” says Arthur. Forty-five years later, he still hasn’t kicked the Sierra Club habit. “Bill never gives up on anything worth fighting for,” says longtime colleague Julia Reitan. “He is so in it to win it.”

The Sierra Club is partnering with LAIKA animation studios to promote the new comedy-adventure movie Missing Link and inspire audiences to go on a Sierra Club outing near where they live. Missing Link features the voices of Hugh Jackman as investigator Sir Lionel Frost, Zoe Saldana as the free-spirited adventurer Adelina Fortnight, and Zach Galifianakis as the 8-foot tall, 630-pound Mr. Link.

Celebrate Earth Day every day with our national park t-shirts, organic hoodies, and more in the Sierra Club Store.

And take 20% off with code EARTHDAY through Monday, April 22. Every purchase supports our work to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet.