Earth Day celebrated at Champion Lake with frog races and live snakes

Jake Ballard is a volunteer at the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge and was on hand Saturday, April 23, to help with the live snake exhibit during the refuge’s Earth Day event at Champion Lake. Here Ballard holds a speckled king snake. less Jake Ballard is a volunteer at the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge and was on hand Saturday, April 23, to help with the live snake exhibit during the refuge’s Earth Day event at Champion Lake. Here ... more Photo: Casey Stinnett Photo: Casey Stinnett Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Earth Day celebrated at Champion Lake with frog races and live snakes 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

The Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge held its annual Earth Day event at Champion Lake on Saturday, April 23.

The weather was fine on Saturday, but with so many bad storms lately and the water high, worries about the weather were probably behind a lower attendance this time around than in recent years.

Those who did attend enjoyed kayaking, boating and fishing as usual, plus this year they had frog races and a live snake exhibit.

TRNWR holds its Earth Day events on Saturdays, but Earth Day was April 22. Earth Day was founded by Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson in 1970 as a national “teach-in” on environmental issues, and the Earth Day organization that Nelson, a Democrat, created was then co-chaired by California Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey.