Give ‘em a Hand : Students get a lesson in the environment by picking up trash in Big Tujunga Canyon.

The boys and girls in Doug Copeland’s fourth- and fifth-grade class took a couple hours off from school Tuesday to clean up their back yard--the litter-strewn Big Tujunga Canyon.

With their sleeves rolled up and hands protected by rubber gloves, the youngsters from Plainview Elementary School in Tujunga picked up trash left by picnickers along a stream.

“This is gross,” said Tony Orozco, 9, peering at his collection of cups, old clothing and part of a mattress he stuffed into a garbage bag. But he saw the social significance of his toils.

“The more you clean up, the more nicer it is, and the animals don’t have to eat (the garbage),” Tony explained.

That was part of the message Copeland was hoping to get across. “The kids live right on the other side of the hills,” said the teacher, who asked the California Environmental Project to sponsor a two-day workshop for his students to teach them about the impact humans have on the Earth.

Families come to picnic by the stream every weekend, according to Scott Mathes, executive director of the environmental group, and often leave their trash--from plastic foam cups to diapers--along the banks.

In the summer, people also dam parts of the stream to make deeper pools for swimming, Mathes said, and this allows bacteria to build up in the stagnant water.

The day before their trek out to the canyon, the children saw a play by the California Environmental Project about the “Impact Monster,” a horrible creature that litters and doesn’t recycle.

“Yesterday, we learned how to help the wildlife by telling your parents about putting their beer cans in the trash,” said 11-year-old Crystal Valenzuela, who took from the play and trash pickup an apocalyptic vision of the future.

“If people don’t stop littering, all the fish and toads and frogs are going to die,” Crystal said.