The Importance of Bringing Joy Into Environmental Work

The year 2025 featured a lot of ups and downs for environmental protection and the policies that govern its support. From significant staffing cuts within the EPA and NOAA to detrimental natural disasters exacerbated by global climate change, environmental work can feel like an uphill battle. While 2025 was riddled with challenges, we saw some serious wins for public land conservation. When the FY2026 budget was finally passed, the U.S. Congress voted to retain the Park Service’s operating budget, preserving critical support for park operations, biologic research, and facility maintenance. In DC, a bottle bill was introduced to reduce plastic pollution in the District, supported by the majority of stakeholders. It’s necessary to celebrate the wins. 

Leaders in the green movement have made concerted efforts to emphasize celebrating environmental successes to sustain momentum for our fight for a better planet. Last fall, Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens staff had the opportunity to join The Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ) Global Environmental Justice Conference entitled “Environmental Joy: Writing the Future.” This congress met with the inspiring intent of uniquely centering our conversations around environmental joy. Representatives from diverse communities around the world came together to share success stories from their homes, discuss ideas and innovations, and contemplate scalable collective action. 

Centering joy contextualizes environmental preservation. Keep reading to learn about some of our local success stories in 2025 and how we can continue to hold space for joy in environmental work.

Maintaining a Sustainable Mindset

Concern about the environment has existed for thousands of years. Often, it’s in reaction to the harms that people witness in their environment and thus the effects on humanity. Environmentalism took shape in the United States when well-recognized individuals platformed campaigns to protect air, water, and wilderness by limiting human expansion. Repeatedly, throughout human history, people have demonstrated a concern for the environment and passed this concern onto their children to support the spirit of conservation. Protecting our planet is an inherently intergenerational mission, one that calls for environmental education from an early age.

How can we recruit the next generation of environmental stewards to continue this important work? One solution is volunteerism. On National Public Lands Day, we welcomed over 50 people including girl scouts as young as five years old. Throughout the year, we also welcomed student groups with ages ranging from 15 to 19 from Georgetown Day School, University of Maryland, and George Washington University. As we engage in conservation across the nation and the globe, including youth is central to a sustainable future.

In 2025, Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens hosted a variety of youth programs. From spring and summer camps with kids ages 6 to 14, to partnering with the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) for bank restoration along our ponds, we believe that young people in our community need an opportunity to foster a sense of belonging with their local green spaces. During their restoration work, some of the LAYC students were awe-struck watching spiders walk on water and seeing herons walking casually down the trail, standing three feet tall. 

The students naturally brought curiosity, energy, and openness into their work, finding excitement in small moments, asking honest questions, and expressing emotions freely. When they form connections to the beauty of nature, they feel motivated to protect it. The environmental movement only succeeds when new generations of people participate. Our youth must experience joy in nature to build a sustainable mindset and foster hope that a different future is possible. 

Taking A Community-Focused Approach

We have control over preservation when we work together, especially when we think locally. Though environmentalism was foundationally made up of collective grassroots efforts, larger groups started to form to combat the pervasive effects of industrialization and urbanization from the late 1800s to early 1900s. Community engagement lost emphasis. Now, many environmental leaders have called for a greater focus on civic engagement and community building, not policy. While executive and legislative changes remain uncertain in the U.S., local efforts and resiliency become that much more important.

No one knows more about the local environment than its inhabitants. These are the same people who enjoy visiting these spaces, sometimes every day. Engaging with the community through activities centered around conserving their neighborhood’s green spaces is a powerful avenue to creating joy and sustainable environmental protection.

Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens sparks community enjoyment by hosting free events that are open to everyone. In 2025, we were proud to offer almost 80 public events and host over 760 people to participate in personal wellness activities ranging from arts and crafts to meditation and fitness. Our feedback revealed a sense of appreciation, enjoyment, and love. These experiences make protecting the space where they take place feel important and necessary. 

Feeling Inspired By Nature

Nature teaches us lessons that are useful for inspiring conservation work. From our Manchurian lotus seeds sprouting after up to 1,000 years to trees communicating through underground networks, there are so many awe-inspiring stories of resilience in the natural world. These stories remind us that environmental work matters despite the challenges we face. If organisms can demonstrate patience, cooperation, and strength, why can’t we?

Nature also constantly provides us with avenues for developing solutions to complex anthropogenic problems. In 2025, Hawaiian researchers at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa discovered that various species of marine fungi could break down polyurethane, a pervasive plastic that pollutes much of the ocean. It’s discoveries like this that inspire the joy, optimism, and hope that fuels conservation. It’s almost as if the environment seeks to protect us as much as we strive to protect it. 

The beauty of joy is that it is renewable. We feel renewed when we breathe fresh air during a morning walk in our favorite park. We feel renewed when we see beautiful wildlife species. We feel a renewed sense of appreciation when we share an outdoor experience with a friend in a place they’ve never been. Conservation requires unity and vigilance, but our work is underscored by a deep love and appreciation for the natural environment.

New Year, Same Planet

We all depend on the planet to live happy and healthy lives. But sometimes when we look to the future of environmental protection, we can get bogged down with bad news. It can feel distressing – joy is not always easy to manifest. But, it is integral to the survival of conservation work. 

By volunteering, organizing our communities, and continuing to foster love for our environment, we can prevent the worst visions of the future of our planet. Doing the work that we do, together. As you embark on your journey as an environmental steward, remain imaginative in your solutions and resolute in your intent to conserve shared natural resources.