WINNER. Fourth grader Landon Q. Bailey, 10, of Westerville, Ohio, captured this winning photo of a frog in an algae-filled pond when he visited a local park with his family. "The pond was so full of algae that I thought we wouldn't see any frogs,” he said. “Suddenly, I realized there was a frog looking right at me." Other readers answered the question "Why is Earth Day important to our planet?" with images of birds, butterflies and even whales! Flip through this slideshow to see more winning photographs. 

FINALIST. Trad Sink, 10, took this photo of a fawn hiding in a pumpkin patch behind Trad’s house, in Lexington, North Carolina, on August 7, 2012.

FINALIST. Noushin Hasan, 11, snapped this photo of the majestic waterfalls in Niagara Falls, New York, on August 5, 2012. The skyline of Buffalo, New York, can be seen in the distance. “The Earth has been brought into a whole new century filled with technology,” she says. “We should take Earth Day to treasure what this planet holds for humans.”

FINALIST. Lauren Buehrle, 11, from Crown Point, Indiana, took this photo of a heron while celebrating New Year’s Eve, in Siesta Key, Florida. “This was really fun to take,” she says. “I was watching tropical birds on the ocean, and this bird flew right toward me.”

FINALIST. Yasemin Schmitt, 10, captured this photo of a butterfly, in Central Park, in New York City, during the summer. “Central Park is an important place to experience my urban world,” he says.

FINALIST. Phoebe Hurwitz, 11, took this photo of a cat in her backyard, in Pacific Palisades, California, on March 10. She called the image “Bench-warmer Lolita.”

FINALIST. Nadia Imam, 11, photographed this Blue Dacnis last November at the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco. “Hopefully the awareness created by Earth Day activities will help preserve this beautiful bird’s habitat,” she says.

FINALIST. Jeremy Baum, 10, from Redwood City, California, took this photo at the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida, on January 21. It shows a great egret just after catching a fish. “I chose this photo because it shows that if we keep polluting the Earth, the wild birds’ food chain will be disrupted,” he says.

FINALIST. Fourth grader Morgan Miller, 10, from Rossville, Illinois, took this photo of a butterfly on a flower while on vacation with her family in Orlando, Florida.

FINALIST. Nicole Benson, 10, captured this photo of a bee on a sunflower in Estes Park, Colorado, on September 16, 2012. “I chose this picture because I love bees, and this was the best picture I had ever taken,” she says. “It brings back good memories of when my Grandma and I went to Estes Park.”

FINALIST. Elizabeth Rhodes, 10, from Vancouver, Washington, snapped this picture of a red-winged blackbird on March 19 at Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, in Ridgefield, Washington.

FINALIST. Anmol Parande, 13, from Vernon Hills, Illinois, took this photo of humpback whales while visiting the Bay of Banderas, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. He chose the photo to celebrate Earth Day. “Earth Day is the day we choose to respect and thank the Earth for all it has given us,” he says.

FINALIST. Aditi Maheshwari captured this photo of two rivers—Alakhnanda and Bhagirathi—merging to form the Ganges, while visiting the Himalaya region of India last September. This is one of four places like this in the Himalayas. Aditi hopes this picture will remind people not to throw garbage and litter in the rivers. “Just like how the rivers come together, everyone has to come together to save the Earth,” he says.