Volunteers lend care to Upper Newport Bay

Volunteers gathered Saturday morning in an Earth Day-related project to help clean up and care for native habitat in the Upper Newport Bay, home to several of the region’s most productive ecosystems.

Among them were volunteers from Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co.

“We’re thrilled to join a movement across the world … in which we can all clean up and protect our environment,” Sarah Middleton, vice president and executive director of the Pimco Foundation, said in a statement. “We can teach our youth how to care for the Earth and participate in the community in one fell swoop.”

The project was coordinated by the nonprofit organization OneOC and AmeriCorps, part of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

—Rob Vardon

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Earth Day

Wednesday is Earth Day, which began 45 years ago as an effort to raise awareness and support for environmental causes.

According to the Earth Day Network, which coordinates international environmental activities, the effort’s roots can be traced to Rachel Carson’s 1962 book “Silent Spring,” which documented the detrimental effects of indiscriminate use of pesticides.

In 1970, then-U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin founded Earth Day in the wake of a massive oil spill at Santa Barbara in 1969, drawing inspiration from the student anti-war movement to organize a “national teach-in” about air and water pollution.

Nationwide rallies we held on April 22 that year. April 22 remains the official date of Earth Day, though festivals and rallies often are held around the world on the weekends before or after that.

Environmentalists often credit the first Earth Day with inspiring the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in December 1970 and several federal environmental laws.