Families walked out of Seneca Park Zoo Saturday with more than just photos — they left with saplings, soil on their hands and a clearer sense of their role in protecting the planet.
Saturday’s Earth Day celebration invited visitors to take part in a wide range of conservation activities, from recycling electronics to receiving free Colorado blue spruce seedlings to plant at home. One of the day’s most popular features, the sapling giveaway, gave guests a simple but lasting way to support local reforestation and biodiversity.
Zoo pathways were lined with booths hosted by local environmental groups, along with interactive wildlife stations and educational exhibits. A new display called One Cubic Foot used a 12-by-12-inch frame to illustrate just how much life can exist in a single square foot of natural space — proof that even the smallest ecosystems matter.
Earlier in the day, more than 100 volunteers gathered at Durand Eastman Beach for the zoo’s annual shoreline cleanup. Equipped with gloves and grabbers, participants removed litter from the Lake Ontario shoreline while also sorting and recording the types of debris collected.
Laura Gaenzler, the zoo’s community science coordinator, said the cleanup wasn’t just about collecting trash — it was about building knowledge.
“[It’s about] getting as much plastic as we can out of the environment. And with these cleanups, we are also sorting through what we find. So that's scientific data,” she said. “People can use that to determine what are our big problem items, and then we can try to find ways that we can mitigate those items from entering our ecosystems again.”
Naturalist Nyna VanHarn, who helped lead the cleanup, said education is a key part of conservation work.
“When somebody doesn't know that what they're doing is harming the earth, they can't change their behavior,” she said. “And so, the more that we teach people about how to help nature, how to take care of it, the less work there's going to be for conservationists in the future.”
Among those pitching in at the beach were employees from Bank of America, which partners with the zoo on volunteer efforts. Kristina Dengler, local market executive with the bank, said the cleanup was both productive and meaningful.
“Getting to see a clean beach, pick up all the garbage that we can, then have families come down and enjoy the beach,” she said. “Spring is right around the corner, and then summer, so we can all come here and enjoy the beach and all its glory.”
Zoo staff say the goal of events like these isn’t just short-term impact. They’re working to foster habits that ripple outward — demonstrating how small, local actions can add up to lasting environmental change.
In 2024, the Earth Day cleanup at Durand Eastman Beach drew 260 volunteers and removed more than 600 pounds of trash. Since 2017, Seneca Park Zoo’s community cleanups have cleared more than 10,000 pounds of litter from parks and waterways across the Rochester region.
More information about upcoming cleanups and sustainability efforts is available at senecaparkzoo.org.
