Nature in the Spotlight During Earth Day Activities : Environment: A fair at UCI will feature displays by 30 groups. Once-injured hawks will be freed. And students at OCC will cite the benefits of hemp.

A wide-ranging series of events--including the release of wild hawks, tours of an ecological reserve and a call for the legalization of marijuana--are planned by Orange County environmentalists beginning this weekend to celebrate Earth Day.

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First on the agenda is a fair Saturday at UC Irvine featuring displays by 30 environmental organizations, including the Bolsa Chica Foundation, California Native Plant Society, Friends of Newport Bay, Nature Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation and the Orange County Bird of Prey Center.

“Our hope is to generate real strong public interest in public issues,” said Randy Lewis, UCI’s director of student activities. “I think this is part of the university’s mission.”

Earth Day, an annual event scheduled this year on April 22, grew out of a 1970 speech by U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson proposing a series of environmental teach-ins on the nation’s college campuses. After an auspicious beginning, the event languished for two decades until 1990 when promoters celebrated its 20th anniversary amid great hoopla.

This year’s observance, said Dawn Matthews, spokeswoman for Earth Day USA based in New Hampshire, is being planned as a “springboard” for next year’s 25th anniversary, which is expected to involve more than 200 million people worldwide.

“Everyone was really feeling the urgency to pull something together,” Matthews said of this year’s event, themed The Time Has Come. “The key words for programs we want people to develop and launch are education, action and working toward sustainability.”

Locally, environmentalists are planning a series of events beginning with the UCI fair. The event, to be held in conjunction with the annual Celebrate UCI day, is expected to draw 18,000 people.

Although it is not being pegged as an official Earth Day observance, a ribbon-cutting is set for Saturday by the Bolsa Chica Conservancy to mark the imminent opening of its long-awaited interpretive center at the Bolsa Chica wetlands. The day will also celebrate the annual return of the California least tern, an endangered species, to the wetlands.

On Sunday, supporters of the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve will offer music, entertainment, nature tours, environmental exhibits, canoe rides and contests at Shellmaker Island on Back Bay Drive a quarter-mile north of Newport Dunes.

Also on Sunday, Anaheim will have its fourth “Let’s Make a Difference” Environmental Faire for adults and children from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Peralta Canyon Park, 115 N. Pinney Drive.

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The event will feature more than 40 environmental information booths, an island art area for children, music and entertainment by a drum band and cartoon characters. The event is free. Information: (714) 254-5191.

Earth Day observances resume Tuesday at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. Students plan a series of displays and speeches, many of them centered on the theme of legalizing marijuana.

“We consider this a major environmental issue,” said Lee Wilson, one of the event’s organizers. Hemp, the plant that produces marijuana, has many environmental uses including fuel, fiber, food and medicine, Wilson said.

On Wednesday, students at Golden West College in Huntington Beach will weigh in with entertainment, information booths and fund-raising food sales from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Entertainers will include Native American musicians and storytellers.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Cal State Fullerton will host six bands and display 25 exhibits focusing on such issues as recycling and conservation.

“We haven’t done anything this big before,” said Karena Gibbs, one of the student organizers. “We just thought our campus needed to wake up.”

Wild hawks will be released during one of the county’s last Earth Day observances, on April 23. Members of Earth Save Orange County, a local group that promotes vegetarianism, will hike to the Holy Jim Falls area of South Orange County to release the birds, which had been injured and have now been rehabilitated.

“What we’re doing,” said chairwoman Sandy LaBedz, “is reconnecting people with nature. We want them to have a reverence for life and the interconnectedness of everything on the planet.”