Earth Day began on April 22, 1970, celebrating support for environmental protection. We have been celebrating Earth Day for as long as we have been celebrating the protection of wild horses and burros with the passage of the 1971 Act.
Yet there is a dichotomy of the word “protection” in these two important celebrations that must be understood. While Earth Day is growing and today includes 1 billion people in 193 countries, we are fighting for the lives of the “last” of America’s wild horses and burros.