Let me tell you how pissed off I was the day after Thanksgiving when I read this headline in the Daily Breeze:
“Vandals Uproot Saplings Planted by Youngsters“
The story in a nutshell read, “Forget the financial loss. Vandals crushed a lot more than that this week when they ripped out fledgling oak trees and smashed other plants being cultivated by dozens of young people from across the South Bay in Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park.“
It steamed my chaps and I wasn’t about to let it go. I work with a lot of great young people in my environmental efforts and to find out that low class creeps, whoever they are, think they can destroy the best efforts of kids giving their free weekend time to try an improve one of our local parks was just something I am not willing to put up with. And you shouldn’t either. That’s why I’m asking you to join me next Saturday, December 10, at 9am at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, to work with Martin Byhower, who heads up the park’s volunteer restoration efforts, and the young volunteers, to repair the damage and help them with their restoration efforts. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the spirit of the season.
Byhower paid about $300 or $400 for the trees that were ripped out and on Thanksgiving day discovered eight saplings ripped from the ground and crushing plant damage from the moron(s) who drove a car or truck over them. He also found graffiti scrawled all over the nearby gazebo and on tree trunks in the same area.
So I’m donating $50 and am asking my friends and fellow environmentalists to kick in whatever you can to help pay for new tree saplings and make this wrong thing right. I’ve already had another $100 in pledged donations from two kind-hearted friends who read my plea on Facebook and I’d be appreciative if any of you can lend a few bucks and/or lend some time on Saturday too.
I’ve never met Martin Byhower, but I know about and admire him and his work. He’s a teacher at Chadwick School in Palos Verdes, where he recruits his students, members of the school’s environmental club and other South Bay students and Boy Scouts to get their hands dirty while learning about the ecology of one of our most important natural habitats. Byhower is also active in our local South Bay Audubon Society, is a well known birder, and has been volunteering his time to improving this park for over 23 years.
He and the kids he works with deserve better and I’m going to do what I can to help them get it.
Creative Greenius 
Joe, I will be there to help out w/the cause and add in $50 the for the plants. See you Saturday!
Greenius:
Wow, that’s great Sona! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that someone with a heart as big as yours, who already gives so much back to the community will be there with me. We don’t get to spend nearly enough time together, so I’ll be thrilled to get to work with you Saturday morning. Hope it warms up a little though!
Here’s a suggestion for stopping the vandals: set up hidden surveillance cameras, pointed at the new saplings, and catch the creeps in the act. Then hand over the video to the cops. Better yet, talk to the cops and see if they can set up the cameras themselves…