Recently in Environment Category

And the winner of the $25,000 prize is ... Laura Howard, a 29-year-old graphic design student at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

The judges of a nationwide contest organized by El Segundo-based Cereplast picked Howard's design for a new symbol to identify products made from bioplastics -- which consist of biological material such as vegetable oil and cornstarch, and are not petroleum-based.

Cereplast, which designs and manufactures these plastics, timed the announcement to coincide with Earth Day, which is today.

Howard's symbol resembles a flower, and incorporates a hexagon placed atop two leaves.

Cereplast's Make Your Mark competition was modeled after a 1970 contest by the Container Corporation of America that led to the creation of the now-universal recycling symbol.

"Obviously over time the recycling symbol has evolved," said Nicole Cardi, Cereplast's vice president and marketing and communication. "It's definitely become a symbol of also the green movement in a way."

The bioplastics signifier will be used initially by manufacturers utilizing Cereplast material, Cardi said.

The company announced its winner Thursday night at an event at the Herman Miller showroom in Los Angeles.

Cardi said more than 1,500 designs were submitted and 2.8 million public votes cast to determine the top 200 entries, which were then turned over to a panel of judges.

The multi-agency program that's been overseeing restoration efforts for Channel Island bald eagles -- which were essentially wiped out by ocean pollution that originated in the Harbor Area -- announced two big milestones today.

For the first time in 60 years, an eagle pair has nested on Anacapa Island. And also for the first time in more than six decades, a set of triplets was born to an eagle pair nesting on Catalina Island.

Those developments mark continuing success for a recovery effort launched in 2002 by the Montrose Settlements Restoration Program, which is the product of a decade of litigation against the former Harbor Gateway-based Montrose Chemical Corporation. The company dumped more than 100 tons of the chemical DDT into the ocean off White Point from the 1940s until 1971. Underwater cleanup efforts -- overseen by the EPA -- are just getting underway, more than 40 years later.

The eagles were affected by contamination from the DDT and other chemicals that climbed the marine food chain. The shells on their eggs became too delicate and would crack before chicks could be born. The white-headed birds disappeared from the Channel Islands.

In 2002, a restoration effort re-introduced eaglets -- from Alaska and other breeding program -- to the islands. The first eggs hatched successfully in 2006. Now there are a dozen breeding pairs.

Last week, a webcam was set up just in time for to see two chicks hatch in a nest kept by an eagle pair at Sauces Canyon on Santa Cruz Island. The camera is on a different pair than have been documented in the past, but it's still pretty cool!

Beleaguered Vernon can't catch a break.

Vernon, population approximately 100, saw the State Assembly taking steps Wednesday toward dissolving the city into Los Angeles County. A bill seeking to break up Vernon is authored by Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, who called the city's corruption "the worst we've seen in this state."

Now Vernon is getting dubious looks from more-populous cities for leading The Mayor's Challenge, a competition between Southern California cities to save water and reduce pollution during April, Earth Month.

On Thursday, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach were sitting in second and third place, respectively.

Residents can make a pledge in the competition by going to www.mywaterpledge.com through the end of the month. The victor city's residents will be eligible for tickets to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim games and Disneyland as well as discounted passes to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

With prizes and pride on the line, some have complained that Vernon is too small to win the contest that is tabulated on a per capita basis.

Steve Creech, vice president of the Wyland Foundation, the nonprofit putting on the contest, said that if Vernon stays in first place it would be co-winner with another larger city.

"The remaining 99 percent of prizes available would go to the next city," Creech said. "And for that matter we would have to see if the vote from Vernon would be authenticated."

Fourth through 10th place on Thursday was occupied by Long Beach, Signal Hill, Villa Park, Gardena, Monrovia, Mission Viejo and Torrance.

A friendly but spirited competition has ensued between South Bay cities for the top spot in The Mayor's Challenge. Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin released a video on Wednesday urging residents to participate. Gin appeared in the video with someone dancing in a lobster suit.

Creech appeared sympathetic with Vernon's plight as the tiny city tries to makes its presence large in the contest.

"Somewhere in Vernon is a person who cares," he said.

San Pedro sea urchin diver Bob Bertelli is the focus on a new multimedia story from KPCC on the implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act.

As a member of the regional stakeholder group that drew the boundaries of a series of proposed fishing closures, Bob is a familiar face to those who have followed the longrunning MLPA process. I reached him yesterday on his boat; he said he wasn't sure he'd be able to make "the big vote" at the Fish and Game Commission meeting in Santa Barbara Wednesday.

In a nice story from KPCC's Molly Peterson, Bob is an example of a fishermen who is somewhat skeptical of the science behind marine protected areas, which are intended to protect habitat and marine ecosystems. Like many watermen, he thinks the potential socioeconomic impact of fishing closures has been vastly understated.

KPCC also visited kelp beds off Rocky Point with representatives from Santa Monica Baykeeper and Heal the Bay, two of a number of environmental groups that are disappointed that the pristine, productive northern Palos Verdes area was not protected.

On Monday, KPCC had a story highlighting Fish and Game Commissioner Mike Sutton, who flew Petersen over the coast from Torrance Airport to take a look at some of the areas that will be protected.

You know you're not supposed to eat white croaker caught in the South Bay and Harbor Area, right? Well, now the EPA-backed Fish Contamination Education Collaborative has a new video to help you identify the species, one of five that should be avoided because of toxic pesticides in the ocean.



The silvery-sided fish has a blunt mouth and a dark spot under the pectoral fin.

Warnings have been issued about white croaker for decades, but a state agency last year expanded its advice against consuming other fish caught in the area around the Palos Verdes Shelf, where millions of tons of the pesticide DDT and other chemicals were dumped from the 1940s to the early 1970s.

Anglers should also avoid barred sand bass, topsmelt, barracuda and black croaker, according to complicated guidelines from the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The fish collaborative distilled that warning into a tip card that came out earlier this year, and it's been working on multimedia outreach -- such as the video above -- as well.

Try taking public comment from more than 700 speakers. That's how many have signed up to address the Fish and Game Commission in San Diego this morning on implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act.

Wow. Commission Chairman Jim Kellogg just warned the audience that the fire marshal might have something to say about the crowd at the meeting at the Four Points hotel.

The meeting is one of the last chances for the public to comment on a controversial plan to halt or limit fishing -- with the intent of protecting habitat and ecosystems -- in nearly 400 square miles of ocean off Southern California. Locally, proposed marine protected areas off the Palos Verdes Peninsula have been a serious point of contention between fishermen and environmentalists.

The commission is set to take public comment on the plan today. Kellogg said -- if there are still speakers waiting when the meeting is shut down at 6 p.m. -- public comment may be continued into tomorrow's meeting.

A decision on the regulations and a related environmental impact report is set for mid-December.

You can watch the meeting online.

Manhattan Beach will continue to pursue a ban on plastic bags, even if a bill to outlaw the point-of-sale plastic sacks fails to pass the state legislature, city officials announced Thursday.

AB 1998, or the "Bag Ban Bill," is expected to be voted on by the full senate at the end of August. If signed into law, it would make California the first state to ban the distribution of plastic bags at supermarkets.

City officials said the ban is needed to protect the city's coastline and local waters.

In July 2008, Manhattan Beach was sued by the Save the Bag Coalition after passing an ordinance to ban plastic bags. The group argued the city violated the state Environmental Quality Act by not fully analyzing the ban's effects.

The lawsuit is expected to be heard by the California Supreme Court in 2011.

Heal the Bay has released a satirical video on the life of the wild plastic bag, "one of the most clever and illustrious creatures" in the "open plains of the asphalt jungle." It's narrated by Jeremy Irons.

Styled like a nature documentary, "The Majestic Plastic Bag" is a bid for support for AB 1998, which would end the use of the disposable sacks at many stores.

Plastic bags are not indigenous to the Pacific Ocean, Heal the Bay reminds us. 

Here are some stats on plastic bags from the group: 19 billion bags are used annually, creating over 123,000 tons of waste. The bags cost $25 million to clean up each year, and less than 5 percent of all single-use plastic bags are recycled.

The Santa Monica-based ocean advocacy group's video is markedly similar to a much longer -- and more sorrowful and contemplative -- version of the same story of a bag's life that came out a few months ago.

That 20-minute short film comes from Ramin Bahrani, who is (full disclosure) a friend of a friend of mine. It's part of a project for emerging directors called Futurestates that examines "possible future scenarios through the prism of today's global realities."

In it, a plastic bag longs to return to its "maker" -- the woman who first is given the bag at a grocery store. The bag speaks in first person, voiced by another film luminary: Werner Herzog.

In both films, the bags end up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The two pieces are filled with lovingly filmed shots of plastic bags drifting across the landscape. I guess no one can forget that scene from "American Beauty."

For more information about Heal the Bay's campaign in support of AB 1998 is on the organization's website.

Readers, so, so much news today:

Three gunmen held up 30 customers at a Hawthorne insurance company Wednesday, and sprayed a couple and their infant with mace.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Police say violent crime in the area has fallen to its lowest rate in 50 years.

Torrance and Gardena are among the 10 clusters of autism cases discovered by UC Davis researchers in the state.

Plans to create public access trails into the Ballona Wetlands are back on track after the state budget crisis last year delayed the project.

The Port of Los Angeles' 22nd Street Park finally opens Saturday, concluding years of debate in San Pedro with trails, picnic areas and meadows.

Mira Costa High's girls soccer players beat their Chadwick counterparts Wednesday. See pictures of the match.