Pres­i­dent Nixon, a col­lege stu­dent, and a Wis­con­sin sen­a­tor: How Earth Day came to be

On April 22, 1971, for­mer Pres­i­dent Richard Nixon plant­ed a tree at the White House, com­mem­o­rat­ing the one-year anniver­sary of Earth Day.
Nixon was one of America’s “green­est” pres­i­dents, sign­ing 14 pieces of envi­ron­men­tal leg­is­la­tion into law while he was in office. He signed laws such as the Nation­al Envi­ron­men­tal Pol­i­cy Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endan­gered Species Act, and the Safe Drink­ing Water Act.
“The tasks that need doing … call for fun­da­men­tal­ly new philoso­phies of land, air, and water use, for stricter reg­u­la­tion, for expand­ed gov­ern­ment action, for greater cit­i­zen involve­ment, and for new pro­grams to ensure that gov­ern­ment, indus­try, and indi­vid­u­als all are called on to do their share of the job and to pay their share of the cost,” Nixon said.
How did Earth Day get on Nixon’s radar? With pas­sion from a col­lege stu­dent and an envi­ron­men­tal­ly …