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A boy scout troop.

Boy Scouts are famously prepared. They can also get things done. Due in part to one aspiring to be an Eagle Scout, 19 of what hopes to be 1,000 new trees have been planted in the city of Santa Monica.

17-year-old Boy Scout Josh Lappen, in the process of earning that Eagle Scout status, looked to fulfill his community service requirement. Wanting to do something for the environment, he reached out to a local state park to offer free manual labor. With budget cuts so deep that there was no one to answer his call, Lappen eventually found his way to City Forester Walt Warriner.

As reported in the Santa Monica Daily Press, Warriner connected the ambitious Boy Scout with a pilot program the city recently started with the United States Forest Service. With the goal of earning “carbon credits” by planting 1,000 trees, the city had everything they needed to get the program off the ground, including tress and space. They just needed someone to help start planting them. That’s where Lappen and his team of volunteers (including his Boy Scout Troop 2) came in.

"This project was completely up my alley," Lappen told the Daily Press. "It was everything I could have thought of, wanted or dreamed of in a planting project."

On National Arbor Day, (April 28^th), Lappen and his crew began planting the 19 California sycamore trees in a previously untended asphalt lot along Michigan Avenue at 22^nd Street in Santa Monica. The trees should reach heights of 20 or 30 feet in ten years, with officials set to monitor their progress over the next century.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post mistakenly inferred that the Boy Scouts planted 1000 trees. In reality, the trees they planted are part of a larger program with the goal of planting that many trees in order to earn carbon credits from the United States Forest Service. 

Eric Demarcq/Flickr (Creative Commons-licensed)

Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica

Earlier this month, we reported that California cities Riverside and Santa Monica were both up for one of three 2012 Siemens Sustainable Community Awards. It was announced just last night at a reception in Atlanta that Santa Monica took the midsize community award over Riverside and Jersey City, NJ. Chicago won for large community, while Purcellville, Virginia, took home the prize for small community.

"The awards show just how much the concept of sustainability has evolved for U.S. municipalities," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center founder and executive director Stephen Jordan in a press release. "Chicago, Santa Monica, and Purcellville show that getting sustainability right improves quality of life, the efficient use of resources, competitiveness, and attractiveness for residents and visitors."

“Santa Monica is a leader in sustainable strategic planning and has taken a well-rounded, data-driven approach to ensuring that the community’s sustainability goals are met,” said the city’s Mayor Richard Bloom in a statement. “We’re honored to have our efforts recognized with the Siemens Sustainable Community Award.”

Santa Monica was chosen “for setting strategic citywide goals that are reinforced across multiple planning areas, such as resource conservation, economic growth, open space and land use, housing, transportation, civic participation, and human services,” according to the U.S. Chamber BCLC press release.

The awards were established in 2008 to showcase and support communities making diligent strides in environmental leadership. As part of this year’s award, all three winning cities will receive $20,000 in trees from the Alliance for Community Trees.

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A Metrolink passenger train car arrives at the downtown Riverside station.

Santa Monica and Riverside are among the nine finalists vying for the 2012 Siemens Sustainable Community Awards. Chosen by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center and Siemens Corporation, the finalists were selected from a pool of over 130 applicants, and judged by a panel of sustainability experts.

Both Riverside and Santa Monica are competing in the Midsize Community category against Jersey City, NJ. Boston, Chicago and Las Vegas are the Large Community finalists, with Middleton, WI, Purcellville, VA and River Falls, WI in the Small Community category.

"In Riverside, we see sustainability as more than a program or a destination but as a way of life that is integrated with economic success and inherent in quality of life," said the city’s Mayor Ronald O. Loveridge in a press release. Riverside was chosen for the Green Action Plan, a 38-point strategy for improving sustainability across eight categories. "We are honored to be recognized as a finalist by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Siemens Corporation for our sustainability accomplishments, and we are delighted to share our best practices with other cities through the Sustainable Community Awards program."

Santa Monica was chosen primarily on the basis of the integrated efforts of the Sustainable City Program, particularly the 2010 Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE), which combines land use and transportation planning activities. Business-driven efforts such as “Buy Local” and “Business Greening” campaigns are also cited for Santa Monica’s spot among the finalists.

Winners will be announced April 17 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center’s National Conference in Atlanta.

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Santa Monica Beach.

Heal The Bay is supersizing Earth Day. The Santa Monica-based nonprofit environmental group is expanding the concept to launch Earth Month next month with more than 50 events across L.A. County throughout April.

Among the many festivals and outreach programs are a series of volunteer-based events that are expected to draw thousands of participants, particularly over Earth Day weekend, April 21-22.

According to a press release, people interested in getting involved can pre-register at www.healthebay.org, with a volunteer orientation scheduled for the evening of April 9 at Heal The Bay’s main office in Santa Monica.

For Earth Day, Heal The Bay’s monthly “Nothin’ But Sand” beach cleanup in Santa Monica will feature the star power of Ian Somerhalder, best known as the main hot guy on TV show “The Vampire Diaries.” It’s all in conjunction with Somerhalder’s Foundation and its “Get Dirty” initiative, with Whole Foods Market and the California Coastal Commission also getting involved.

“I am proud that next month we will finally see what I hope to be the first of many Clean Ups to come,” Somerhalder said on his foundation’s website. “I can’t wait to Get Dirty with so many of you wonderfully inspiring, caring and hard working ISF family members.”

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Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica

The city of Santa Monica has signed a new eco-positive resolution that aims to guarantee citizens a series of environmental rights based around sustainability — and the right to sue if they’re not met:

The right to clean, affordable and accessible water from sustainable water sources for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes; the right to a sustainable energy future based on sustainable renewable energy sources; the right to a sustainable natural climate unaltered by fossil fuel emissions…the right to clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and clean soil that pose a negligible health risk to the public; and the right to a sustainable food system that provides healthy, locally grown food to the community…

So goes the ambitious new bill, which builds on Santa Monica’s already robust commitment to environmentalism, with the city’s first sustainability plan established back in 1994. Presented to city council this past January, the bill passed unanimously and will be reintroduced as an ordinance for another vote before the end of the year.