Cleaning Up After Environmental Party : Environment: Volunteers pick up trash left by thousands who attend the festival.

They also serve who stoop to gather Earth Day litter.

Yes, Earth Day litter.

The city of Ventura drew thousands to the beach by Channel Islands National Park Saturday with its Earth Day and Land By The Sea Fair--a cheerful, well-mannered mob of people.

But it took a small mob of volunteers and public employees to clean up the mess that was made while celebrating the natural environment.

“We got here about 6:30 a.m.,” said Terri Kirby, a state employee who brought 15 young California Conservation Corps workers from Camarillo to help set up the event and clean up afterward.

Kirby spoke at about 1:30 p.m. There wasn’t a lot for the cleanup patrol to do then, but there were a pair of discarded yellow napkins on the ground near the food line where she stood. She collected them and tossed them in a nearby trash can.

“I thought it would be dirtier than this,” said Conservation Corps worker John Creighton. “But people have been picking up cans . . . I guess that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

Some of the city’s Earth Day guests, however, forgot.

At 10:30 a.m., for instance, a man in gray jeans rose to leave the beach stage area, remembering to bring a free sapling he was given at the telephone book recycling truck--and forgetting the inch-long Marlboro butt he left in the sand.

At 11 a.m., a happy family dashed down the sidewalk outside the Channel Islands Visitor Center, heading in the direction of the “Mr. Clean” boat display--and leaving behind a full Winchell’s takeout tray, complete with three Styrofoam cups, a few crumpled napkins and half a dozen donuts.

Beth Cohen, a city recreation supervisor and organizer of the day’s events, had never doubted that such episodes would happen, even at an Earth Day party. In the weeks before the event, Cohen said, the city restricted the materials that the exhibitors were allowed to distribute, arranged to set up a temporary recycling center for cans and bottles and assembled a team of volunteers--drawing heavily on local high schools--to help in the cleanup.

A dozen extra trash cans were added to the usual six or so in the area, and port district and National Park Service maintenance crews were scheduled to make mid-day “loops” through the site to keep trash cans from overflowing.

“We have 18 people here ready to clean up, but there’s nothing to clean up,” said Cohen at about 3 p.m.

But then the concluding concert by guitarist Larry Carlton ended and the human tide receded from the beach to the parking lots. Plenty was left behind in the sand: a Budweiser bottle (even though festival organizers sold no alcohol), a Snickers wrapper near the T-shirt stand, a “Save California Wildlife” bumper sticker, a plastic lunch bag and a few cigarette butts.

The droppings made for interesting speculation: Which Earth Day patron did this? And was he or she wearing a politically correct T-shirt at the time?

Officials reported a nearly flawless day, otherwise. The sun shone, traffic backed up a bit but generally ran smoothly, and the headlining band finished only half an hour later than scheduled.

“Nothing. Real quiet. Nice family day,” said Ventura Police Officer Hiram Hernandez.

“I’d say it’s very successful, in terms of the numbers . . . and the interest of the people,” said Bill Noak, a member of Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, who was doing a brisk business in environment-oriented books.

“I bet we’re easily over 10,000,” said Cohen, estimating total attendance over the course of the day. “Probably closer to 15,000.”

Rangers at the Channel Islands National Park visitor center counted more than 1,000 visitors between 10 a.m. and noon.

The day’s dozens of exhibitors ran the gamut. Beyond War was there, as was the Channel Coast Natural History Assn. and the Southwestern Herpetological Society, whose members entertained passing onlookers with snakes.

The Green party, which counts about 75 dues-paying members in Ventura County, had a booth, and so did Clean Seas, a nonprofit corporation funded by a consortium of major oil companies to clean up spills and represent the petroleum industry at events such as this one.

In Santa Barbara, where an oil spill inspired the first Earth Day 20 years ago, organizers blocked oil companies from appearing at this year’s Earth Day festivities. Ventura did not, Cohen said, because its Earth Day and Land By the Sea Fair celebration is aimed at both environmental and energy education.

“We kind of fall into a different category,” Cohen said. “So the oil interests are here. You have to work with those people.”

At the Clean Seas exhibit, Clean Seas equipment operators Bill Jones and Kent Creighton were demonstrating oil-spill cleanup techniques with a foil tray of water, a quart of 40-weight motor oil and a pinch of transmission fluid. Once the oil was in the water, they dropped in specially designed white pads, which absorbed the petroleum products but not the water.

“That’s sick,” said 8-year-old Rachel Cirricione, of the spill and cleanup display.

“But you gotta do it,” said Bill Jones, dropping in a white pad.

“Hey, Bill,” said Creighton after the little girl had gone. “We need to put one of those ducks in here, and some fish. More realistic.”