Lady Bird Johnson’s Green Legacy
With all the ways to be green these days, it’s easy to forget some of the simplest things we can do to make the earth beautiful. Lady Bird Johnson, who passed away last week, is being celebrated as the first â€˜greenâ€™ First Lady. A wonderful MSNBC article titled “Lady Bird Johnson: Green Before Green Was Cool,” discusses what meant the most in life to Lady Bird. What began with the Highway Beautification Act by planting wildflowers and reducing billboards along highways ended with a monumental natural impact on the United States. A champion for the beautification of the earth, Lady Bird was directly responsible for over 200 legislative initiatives to clean up highways, preserve and create new parks, protect wildlife, and basically plant flowers wherever there was room. She is credited for making the National Mall in Washington, DC full of shade trees, expanses of grass for leisure, and overall the picturesque place it is today.
Lady Bird also partnered with the nonprofit organization Keep America Beautiful for the last 40 years; she truly wanted to spread her message of beauty for the Earth. Now get out there and plant some seeds!