FOR TREE DAY, VALLEY GIVING AWAY GREEN SOIL.Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - Grass clippings dumped in green-waste bins will come back in the form of free planting soil Saturday at Santa Clarita's Arbor Day observance. The Camarillo-based company that recycles Santa Clarita's grass clippings, leaves and branches - about 30,000 tons worth in 2005 - will be giving away hundreds of bags of outdoor planting mix made in part from the city's leafy discards. ``We're in the business of commercializing Mother Nature's process,'' said Bill Camarillo, president of Agromin. Santa Clarita's green-waste shipments have doubled in the decade the two have been doing business, he said. Organic materials, which are sorted at processing centers, include landscape trimmings, tree trimmings, construction lumber and fencing from Santa Clarita and Ventura and Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. counties. The wood products are turned into mulch mulch, any material, usually organic, that is spread on the ground to protect the soil and the roots of plants from the effects of soil crusting, erosion, or freezing; it is also used to retard the growth of weeds. and soil amendments. Agromin aims to charge lower gate fees than landfills to encourage recycling, but Camarillo said the bottom line is about more than greenbacks. ``Green waste is organic, and when you put it into landfills it creates methane gas,'' he said. ``We want to reduce the amount of methane gas produced in landfills because it produces greenhouse gases, that (add to the) global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. process.'' Francisco Arcaute, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and , noted that the presence of methane, a greenhouse gas, affects the earth's temperature and climate system and is the second most important greenhouse gas next to carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. . Participants in Saturday's event can snag free trees in one-gallon pots; the city is giving away stone and Aleppo pines, California sycamore and coast live oak, said William Wittkopf, general services manager. Santa Clarita - designated a Tree City USA Tree City USA is a tree planting and tree care program sponsored by The National Arbor Day Foundation for cities and towns in the United States. Requirements
judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com (661) 257-5255 Arbor Day Santa Clarita's Arbor Day celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Central Park, 27150 Bouquet Canyon Road, Saugus. For information, call (661) 294-2567. CAPTION(S): box Box: Arbor Day (see text) |
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