At egg, every day is Earth Day. So when the actual Earth Day comes along, we have to raise the bar a bit. This year, we spent some time at Seattle’s largest Earth Day cleanup event, where 400 volunteers gathered along the banks of the Duwamish river to remove invasive weeds and plant native trees. And we brought along the Mud Monster.

We are sworn to secrecy about the Mud Monster’s raison d’être at this time, but rumor has it that a big campaign is to launch at the end of May, and all will eventually be revealed. Suffice it to say that some heavy-hitting environmental groups are about to begin something very significant for Puget Sound.

Meanwhile, the Mud Monster worked the Earth Day crowd with aplomb. He was shy at first, crawling out from a muddy cove and skulking behind shrubs like a latter-day Sasquatch. But he quickly warmed to the crowd, and his energy was infectious. Children flocked to his side for hugs and photo ops and autographs, and even adults were momentarily tempted away from their digging by this wacky creature with starfish on his shoulders and eelgrass for hair (rumor has it that his creator also made the costume for the Mariner Moose). He remained silent throughout, and when people demanded an explanation from his companion (a young man wearing a t-shirt that said “I’m with the Mud Monster”), they were told only that the Mud Monster was here to do good for the Sound and its shorelines, and that they should visit mudup.org and look forward to something big launching on May 31st.

It was a deeply inspiring day. People for Puget Sound ran a well-planned event, providing tools and food and instruction, and the volunteers were a diverse and enthusiastic group. Seattle City Council was well-represented in Richard Conlin, Sally Clark, and Tom Rasmussen, and the requisite speeches were made by EPA, the Port of Seattle’s new Chief Executive, Tay Yoshitani, and PPS’s Kathy Fletcher. It’s a wonderful thing to see hundreds of people gathered in the drizzly chill of a spring Seattle morning to bring a polluted waterway back to life. Volunteers were getting deep into the mud and scratched by blackberry brambles, but they continued undaunted for hours. We asked one little girl if she knew what Puget Sound was, and she replied, “It’s the biggest ocean in the world.” And this is why we all came out to the banks of the Duwamish on this wet cold Saturday morning, Mud Monster and shovels in tow.