Earth Day festival announces speaker

Patricia Powell, executive director of the Whidbey Camano Land Trust, will give the 2011 keynote address at the Earth Day Festival at Bayview Corner, organizers of the event said.

Patricia Powell, executive director of the Whidbey Camano Land Trust, will give the 2011 keynote address at the Earth Day Festival at Bayview Corner, organizers of the event said.

The annual celebration returns to Bayview Corner for its fifth year on Saturday, April 16.

The Whidbey Camano Land Trust raised more than $4 million last year to preserve the 654-acre property known as Trillium Woods — since renamed Trillium Community Forest — that’s located west of Highway 525 about a mile north of Mutiny Bay Road. The land will be used for non-motorized recreational activities such as hiking, biking and horseback riding.

This year’s Earth Day Festival will include music, children’s activities, a display of alternative vehicles and the community peace photo.

There will be resource and networking tables with information from local organizations on a wide variety of topics related to green living and environmental sustainability.

Also planned: ReSkilling and ReTooling Workshops for the 21st century. The workshops will cover traditional skills such as canning, self-subsistence gardens, repurposing old items and other topics.

The free festival will be held from noon to 4 p.m. April 16. The event is organized by Goosefoot, the South Whidbey Environmental Navigation Community, South Whidbey Tilth and Transition Whidbey.

Organizers said a detailed schedule of events will be available at www.goosefoot.org after March 25.