SWAMPSCOTT — A little early morning rain didn’t stop the party at the Town Hall Lawn on Saturday, where residents gathered for the town’s fourth annual Earth Fest, a community celebration of sustainability, conservation, and local action.

About a dozen tables lined the lawn, staffed by local organizations, artists, and volunteers, each offering a different way for residents to engage with environmental issues or simply celebrate climate resiliency and nature within Swampscott, from planting trees and protecting local ecosystems to appreciating the beaches and recycling everyday items.

At one of the busiest tables, members of the Tree Committee handed out free American plum trees, part of an annual giveaway aimed at expanding the town’s tree canopy one yard at a time.

“We’re trying to encourage the residents to take responsibility for maintaining a tree canopy,” Tree Committee member Jim Olivetti said. “We’re running out of public space for trees… so we’re saying to the public, ‘Why don’t you plant a tree in your yard?’”

The tree giveaway was funded by the Swampscott Conservancy, and the committee offered one tree per household.

“People are loving it. It’s been busy over here all morning,” he said, noting that they had started the day with 100 trees and expected to run out before the event ended.

Another tree committee member, Suzanne Hale, marketed the trees to an endless line of residents.

“We always go with a native tree,” Hale said. “That way, it adds to the biodiversity in the town; it supports various life cycles of different insects and birds.”

Hale said this year’s selection, the American plum, is a smaller, flowering tree well-suited for residential properties, producing white blooms in the spring and small edible fruit later in the season — a bit tart, but great for jam, she said.

“Native trees are situated well in the soil that we already have,” Hale said. “You don’t want to fertilize them; you don’t want to amend the soil. Dig a hole; pop it in.”

Throughout the event, families moved from table to table, interacting and learning about town projects in initiatives like the Swampscott Rail Trail, which featured a bicycle repair station and representatives answering questions about the Rail Trail initiative.

Across the lawn, members of the Swampscott Conservancy used the event to highlight broader environmental priorities, particularly the protection of natural resources.

“The Swampscott Conservancy is very into open space and conservation land,” President Toni Bandrowicz said. “We’re also very concerned about eelgrass.”

Bandrowicz pointed to ongoing conversations around eelgrass beds near the town pier, an issue that has drawn attention in recent months as town officials weigh environmental protections against coastal infrastructure needs.

The conservancy passed out information sheets to help people understand the importance of eelgrass, pointing to the fact that eelgrass meadows are nurseries, habitats, and feeding grounds for many aquatic species. These meadows are also a powerful carbon storage system, and critical for climate resiliency.

Attached to the conservancy table was an interactive station with buckets of marine life, where residents could see and touch eelgrass, crabs, starfish, and other aquatic creatures.

For other groups, Earth Fest was a chance to connect the dots between environmental sustainability and the preservation of town history and space. At the Save the Glover table, organizers framed their preservation efforts from that historical perspective.

“Repurpose, recycle, and reuse,” Wendy Mayer said. “We would not only like to save the building, but make sure that it’s a space that the community can use, instead of just tearing it down.”

The table also handed out coloring pages, where kids could design their own General Glover House, pencil in a photo of the Revolutionary figure, and learn of Glover’s historical importance through pictures of his regiment leading George Washington across the Delaware River.

“Without General Glover, we wouldn’t be having Earth Fest today,” Nancy Schultz said, underscoring the importance of the Marblehead native’s role in the American Revolution.

Speak Up for Animals ran a table focusing on the importance of protecting wildlife within the town, highlighting a recent project run by Deb Newman and the Department of Public Works protecting ducklings and goslings at Foster’s Pond.

At another table, local artist Hannah Sharpless invited visitors to interact with an installation made from materials collected along the shoreline, blending art with environmental awareness.

“It’s all stuff — some of it natural, some of it trash, and it’s for playing with, looking at… building things with,” Sharpless said.

The piece, which stretched the entire length of the table, incorporated things like seaglass, plastic, and organic debris. It was designed to draw attention to the “littoral zone,” the stretch between high and low tide that plays a critical role in coastal ecosystems.

“It is a nursery for young sea animals; it is a feeding ground for seabirds,” Sharpless said. “For me, it’s just like a real biosphere of its own, and I’m trying to draw attention to it.”

Throughout the morning, Grab the Bagel ran a food truck for hungry passersby, and Big Blue Bargains ran a table to educate residents on sustainability initiatives within town. Representatives from the Solid Waste Advisory Committee answered questions about upcoming trash and recycling contracts, and displayed a photo of waste littering a street to educate residents about composting.

The event also featured a performance from the Eternals Lion Dance Team, which brought a dragon dance typically seen during Vietnamese New Year celebrations onto the lawn. The performance moved into the crowd, where children followed alongside and interacted with the dancers, capping off a morning of hands-on learning and community engagement.