Bringing New Life to Angeles Forest

Amid a desolate landscape in the Angeles National Forest on Sunday, about 100 people scrambled over charred trees and ashy hills, planting 8-inch-tall oak trees.

Rosa Bautista planted a sapling in the name of her 6-week-old son, Christopher, and then 10 more trees, named for his siblings, his grandparents, his aunts and uncles, and finally for his two pets. By the time his mother and sister Brittany, 3, got on their knees to plant the 12th tree, his family had some serious help.

Mike Dombeck, chief of the U.S. Forest Service, commended Brittany for her expertise in spreading mulch. An array of environmental and Jewish leaders, including U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and Israeli Consul General Yuval Rotem, stood by and then sang a song naming the tree after a former head of the forest service.

In the middle of 7,000 acres of arson-ravaged hillsides, the Department of Agriculture and the Jewish National Fund held the first “Day in the Forest,” planting 350 trees that will help one small part of the forest rise from the cinders of the destructive August fire.

The event marked the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shevat, in which Jews plant trees for future generations to enjoy, and meditate on the relationship of humans and nature. Phil Janik, associate chief of the forest service, attended a similar ceremony in Israel. Sunday also was the federal government’s first Millennium Green 2000 program in a national forest. The program aims to plant one tree for every American by the end of the year.

Many of the adults used the day as an opportunity to stump for an array of environmental and political causes.

California Secretary for Natural Resources Mary Nichols called for tree lovers to support two March ballot measures that would create bond measures for parks and water.

Rotem called for the United States to aid in the Middle East peace process by supporting water projects in the region.

Bautista, who works for the nonprofit group TreePeople, said she and her children will return often to visit their trees, bringing them water and watching them grow.

She and her sister had often visited the forest as children, she said. But they never planted trees.

“I’ve always wanted my children to do this,” she said.