EARTH DAY HAS COME LONG WAY SINCE DEBUT IN 1970 KIDS CARRYING ON ENVIRONMENTAL TRADITION.

Byline: Erik Nelson Staff Writer

It just wouldn't have been Earth Day at Hansen Dam Park on Saturday without a bit of tree-hugging.

So when they were done digging a hole, untangling roots, mixing compost, planting a sapling, covering, berming and mulching, 12-year-old Arlene Ramos of North Hills and 13-year-old Ivette Herrera of Canoga Park had one remaining task.

The two Girl Scouts linked arms around the spindly 6-foot-tall trunk and performed the ceremony they had learned 20 minutes earlier:

``Trees need people, people need trees,'' they said, welcoming the 3- year-old tree to the park.

The 30th anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration was observed quietly in the San Fernando Valley, with tree plantings, cleanups and nature hikes, while celebrities such as Jennifer Love Hewitt and Maria Conchita Alonso urged a crowd of celebrants in Exposition Park to take personal and political action on a number of local and global environmental issues.

Asked why they were planting a tree, Ivette struggled, coming up with: ``We're helping the environment.''

But a man with a salt-and-pepper ponytail, troop father Cliff Fried of Van Nuys, leaned toward her, whispering, and Ivette piped up, ``Oh, yeah. These are the lungs of the earth!''

An estimated 200 volunteers helped plant about 450 trees at Hansen Dam Park during the event, organized by Coldwater Canyon-based Tree People and Pacoima Beautiful. Most of the plane trees, which are closely related to the sycamore, and 5-year-old coast live oaks were donated by the state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Panorama City, and Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla both were credited with helping to obtain a contribution of 50 oaks from waste company Browing-Ferris Industries and 50 plane trees from Green Set, a North Hollywood nursery for television and movie productions.

Other celebrations included a bluegrass concert in Coldwater Canyon Park and a cleanup and fair at the Topanga Community House.

In Burbank's Wildwood Canyon, the city's Parks and Recreation Department attracted about 200 people to its Earth Day observance.

``That's a wildcat skull,'' announced volunteer Alan Belthais as a few children and parents gathered around his table of natural artifacts.

``Whoa!'' exclaimed Elissa Wong, 10, of Burbank. ``It's cool.''

``We just hiked up the trail,'' explained her aunt, Alice Wong, 40, ``but we just came right down. It was kind of hard for me.''

But Wong was still able to collect some buckets of free mulch, which she always does on Earth Day to get her garden started. ``We tried to make some at home, but it just got kind of muddy,'' she said.

Across the parking lot, Burbank Recycling Coordinator Al Zorn squirted oil and brightly colored chemicals onto a big textured map of Burbank. Then he spritzed ``rain'' from a squirt bottle and the contaminants washed into the Santa Monica Bay portion of the map, covering two plastic ``swimmers.''

``Eeeew!'' shouted a dozen members of a Willow Glen Brownie troop.

``What did you learn?'' asked Zorn.

``Don't put liquid into our storm drains,'' the 6- to 9-year-olds chanted in unison.

Carol Stiver, the recreation department's program coordinator who organized the event, said she sees a big difference in environmental attitudes three decades after Earth Day 1970.

``People are a lot more aware of how to take care of the environment, and of things that will hurt it,'' she said. ``It's coming through the kids, and they're just growing up with it.''

- The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Photo:

(1 -- 2) Volunteers, above, pick up trash at Wildwood Canyon Park in Burbank as part of Earth Day activities Saturday. A left, Jose Frias, 17, ties a newly planted tree to a stake at Hansen Dam Park in Lake View Terrace. An estimated 200 volunteers helped plant about 450 trees at Hansen Dam Park during the event, organized by Coldwater Canyon-based Tree People and Pacoima Beautiful. It was the 30th anniversary of the first Earth Day.

(3) Volunteers Michael Ryther and Debra Davidson plant a tree at Hansen Dam Park on Saturday.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer