37 years after first Earth Day, it still manages to inspire

If you were college-age on the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, then, besides the environment, these days you're also likely pondering long-term-care insurance.

Thirty-seven years have gone by, and those organizing this weekend's Earth Day events acknowledge that it seems to have lost some of its luster.

"A lot of people have forgotten about Earth Day," said Robin Clark, 44, habitat-restoration program manager for People For Puget Sound. "I think people care about the environment, but this particular day now is one of many days that deal with the environment."

Still, organizers could take heart at the sight of 350 mostly youthful volunteers at one of the work parties held Saturday — weeding and planting along the Hamm Creek Estuary in the industrial Duwamish Waterway.

They seemed quite cheerful as they wrestled blackberry vines with tentacles that sprawled 10 feet this way and that, their thorns piercing jeans and sometimes skin.

Dominique Hall-Deal, 13, an eighth-grader at Hamilton International Middle School, watched a girl struggle with one of the plants. Things go easier if you cut the tops off first, he said.

Then he went back to the blackberries, throwing those he cut onto a pile.

Officially, Earth Day is today, but there were thousands of events all weekend worldwide, with many, many in the Puget Sound region.

In the U.S., they ranged from Imperium Renewables of Seattle's partnering with the MTV crew of "Pimp My Ride" to put an 800-horsepower, biodiesel-guzzling engine in a 1965 Chevy Impala to more traditional projects such as beach cleanups, ecological fairs and worm-composting classes.

Hamm Creek, once described as a dirty gutter, is a tributary of the befouled Duwamish River. It was brought back to life through the sheer perseverance of John Beal, a Vietnam vet who died last year at age 56 after a long history of heart problems. He spent decades working to restore the creek.

At the location of Saturday's event, the creek once flowed through a large underground pipe. In 1999, a channel was dug out that curved along into the river.

Beal's widow, Lana, was at the event with photos of the renovation project at its start — showing basically a canal and bare dirt. Then volunteers began to put in native plants. Eight years later, the creek looks as if has always been there, with trees and bushes. The wildlife has returned, from migrating coho salmon to more than 60 species of birds.

But along with native plants volunteers put in over the years came unwanted blackberries and Scotch broom.

That's where the 350 volunteers came in.

They were provided with 230 shovels, at least 75 loppers and other gardening tools owned by People For Puget Sound. Besides weeding, they planted 50 Sitka spruces, 25 shore pines, 35 cascara trees, 35 ninebark shrubs, 10 vine maples and 30 mock-orange shrubs.

Vivian Chu, 17, a Roosevelt High School junior, was there because when she was in eighth grade, a teacher kept touting Sierra Club programs that take city kids out into nature.

Chu didn't know many details about the history of Hamm Creek.

"I know the animals were not coming here anymore," she said. "It's hard work. It's nice to know we're doing something for the Earth."

On other days, People For Puget Sound uses gas-powered tools on the weeds. But that's not when kids are volunteering, and not on Earth Day weekend.

Saturday's activities at Hamm Creek were planned to make people feel they were doing something specific about the environment, said Clark, of People for Puget Sound.

"It's difficult when changing the kind of light bulb you use to say, 'I'm making a difference in this planet,' " Clark said. "But coming here, people can get their hands dirty. It's tangible. They come away saying they did something."