WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The sun glistened off the waters at the banks of Rock Creek on Sunday morning as dozens of volunteers came to plant 1,000 saplings along the river as part of the National Zoo’s Earth Day celebration.

Community members and government officials gathered on the balmy morning to both enjoy the zoo and help the environment.

“I’m having so much fun,” 9-year-old Girl Scout Autumn Michmillan said as she dug out a small hole from the ground to plant her tree. “I get to plant trees and help the environment and animals.”

The National Zoo hosted the event to encourage volunteerism.

“This morning gives people an action step,” National Zoo Executive Director Bob Lamb said. “Children will come back and say ‘I planted that tree.’ ”

Environmental Protection Agency employees, including Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock, joined other volunteers in planting trees.

“People get a sense of results for what they're doing,” Peacock said. “This is evidence to me that there's really been a shift. This country is getting greener and greener.”

The saplings included 21 different species of trees native to the region. Although this is the first year the zoo has held tree planting on Earth Day, Lamb said the event falls into a wider effort by the zoo to encourage conservation in peoples’ everyday lives.

“Tree planting is a wonderful thing,” Lamb said. “But we’re really trying to connect it to people's lives and have them take a look at daily things like the type of packaging they use.”