Reward Offered for Return of 1st Earth Day Flag

Leaders of a Washington, D.C.-based ecology group issued an unusual recycling plea Friday.

They appealed to a thief to return the original Earth Day flag, a distinctive green-striped flag that for 21 years has been a fixture at ecology rallies and peace marches in the United States. It apparently was stolen April 14 after the Eco Expo fair at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Officials of the nonprofit advocacy group Environmental Action said a $100 reward will be paid for return of the 5-foot-by-3-foot banner, no questions asked.

“We are not a wealthy organization,” said William Asp, the group’s membership director. “This is far beyond the flag’s value to its current holders. But it is full of historical significance for all environmentalists.”

Asp and Jim Pierce, a scientist who works for the group, discovered the loss after stopping to eat at the close of the weekend event. The flag was tucked inside a brown shoulder bag left in the back seat of a rental car.

The bag, which also held a Minolta camera, was taken by someone who smashed a window while the car was parked near the Original Pantry restaurant on Figueroa Street.

“It was the original Earth Day flag and the only one,” Pierce said. “It’s gone through hundreds of marches. It’s been around the country. At Eco Expo, we had people come up and ask to touch it and have their pictures taken with it.”

Ruth Caplan, executive director of the 20,000-member group, said the flag resembles the American flag, except its stripes are green and white. A yellow ecology logo is on a green square in one corner.

“We’ve always tried to be extremely careful when we took the flag out of the office,” she said, “because it is a symbol of the grass-roots environmental movement. We loved that flag.”