Members of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians will get a chance to personally conserve resources as part of an Earth Day event next week.

At the Medicine Lodge conference room from 1 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, tribal members may exchange up to 10 incandescent light bulbs for new compact fluorescent light bulbs. Desmond Berry, of the tribe’s Natural Resources Department, said tribal officials applied for and received a small grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to fund a light bulb exchange program. 

The exchange is one of several Earth Day-related activities scheduled in Leelanau County this weekend and next week.

Berry said he contacted Christine Drinkwine, human resources manager for the Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse in Traverse City, who was able to negotiate a deal with the national chain to provide 3,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs for an exchange program.

The company said compact fluorescent light bulbs use up to 75 percent energy and last 10 times longer than conventional incandescent bulbs. A compact fluorescent uses one-fifth to one-quarter the power of an equivalent incandescent. 

“We are hoping to get as many tribal members down here as we can on Tuesday and switch out the old bulbs for new. If we switch out all 3,000 compact fluorescent bulbs for the incandescent, that will be like taking 176 average automobiles off the road in terms of pounds of CO2 emissions,” Berry said. Leftover compact fluorescent bulbs will be available for distribution to tribal members at the Natural Resources Department office while supplies last after Tuesday.

The Band’s Natural Resources Department, working with the Champion Tree Project volunteers and students from the Leland, Northport and Suttons Bay public schools and the Kitchi Minogining Tribal School, will be planting several hundred black willows and red-osier dogwood shoots in locations around Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties. Planting will take place from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. A ceremonial tree planting will take place at 11:45 a.m. in front of the Medicine Lodge.

In addition to the tree planting, Ruby John will be playing her fiddle with guitar accompaniment from Jack Chambers and Berry as well in an event organized by Hank Bailey of the Natural Resources Department. 

The Leelanau Conservancy is seeking volunteers to help students plant trees at the Kehl Lake and Narrows natural areas as part of this project on Earth Day.

Following is a list of other Earth Day-related events:
• The Michigan State University Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station will host an organic vegetable growing workshop on Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The program will cover soil management, how organic soils work, cover crops from vegetable production and other aspects of growing organic vegetables. There is a cost for this workshop. For more information, call 256-9888. The Horticultural Research Station is located on Center Highway, just north of Bingham Road.

• Saturday, from 9 a.m. to noon, Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation (TART) Trails, Inc., will host a work bee on the Leelanau Trail starting at the Cherry Bend Road trailhead. Volunteers will trim overgrown limbs and bushes, clean and sweep the trail. Volunteers are asked to bring gloves, trash bags, hand saws, chainsaws, brooms, hedge clippers and tree trimmers. Work will also take place at different spots along the TART trail as it winds through Grand Traverse County. Call 941-4300 for more information.

• The Northwest Michigan Council of Government’s Northwest Michigan Sustainable Business Forum is hosting a Green Lodging Workshop on Tuesday from 8:30 to 11 a.m. at the Bayshore Resort on E. Front Street in Traverse City. Co-sponsored by Traverse City Light and Power, the workshop will show owners of travel lodging how they can have their business certified as “Green Lodging” through a program developed through the Michigan Energy Office, the state Department of Environmental Quality and Travel Michigan. The workshop is free, but participants must register by calling Patty O’Donnell at (231) 929-5039. To learn more about the Green Lodging Michigan program, visit www.michigan.gov/greenlodging.

• In addition to planting champion tree clones in watersheds around the county, students at Glen Lake Elementary School will be learning about the world around them through a series of nature hikes organized by Alice VanZoeren. The hikes are designed to help younger students understand how the environment interacts with different elements and conditions.