(File Photo of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Logo)

(Reported by Danielle Smith of Keystone News Service)

(Harrisburg, PA) In the Keystone State, more than three hundred Pick Up Pennsylvania environmental events are planned for this Earth Week. Last year, more than 77-thousand volunteers removed over 3 million pounds of trash and planted thousands of trees and flowers. Michelle Dunn with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful says Pick Up PA is an annual volunteer effort to clean up Pennsylvania roads, parks, streams and communities. She adds people who take part in these beautification events are helping to fight air and water pollution not just for Earth Day, but for the future. Earlier this year, the Governor Josh Shapiro administration announced more than 15 million dollars in funding to conserve and protect waterways and watersheds, reclaim abandoned mine sites, and plug abandoned wells.