For their Martin Luther King Jr. Day service project, about 50 volunteers with the Student Conservation Association pulled invasive -- and highly flammable -- Scotch broom plants from the area around Tunnel Road and Caldecott Lane.

According to SCA organizer Jenny Seller, by the end of the day roughly 20,000 plants had been uprooted and 100 redwood seedlings planted.

"It went really, really well," Seller said. "The kids got a lot out of it and really felt like they were making a contribution."

The project was organized by the SCA and Robert Sieben of the Hiller Homeowners Association.

The 22 acres above the Gateway Emergency Preparedness Exhibit Center and Garden used to be covered with fuel for a fire like the one that consumed the area in 1991.

Five years ago, Sieben organized homeowners to look for potentially hazardous spots and clear them of broom, pampas grass and eucalyptus trees. The first clearing yielded enough debris to fill 30 Dumpsters.

Since then, it's been an ongoing effort to keep the weeds out, something that fire officials told the youths would make their jobs a lot easier.

"It's much better to prevent fires than try to fight them," said fire inspector Vince Crudele.

After listening to a brief history of the deadly 1991 firestorm and an explanation of why it spread so fast, the students, who came from high schools throughout the area, were given work gloves and instructions on what to pull and what to avoid -- such as poison oak.

The pulling was all done manually, because broom is quick to come back if it is merely cut and not pulled from the roots.

SCA program director Robert Vergara said it was an apt way to spend the holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

"We have a real diverse group here, from all walks of life," Vergara said. "It's a great way for them to learn leadership as well as service work."

Reed McCann, a 17-year-old student at Skyline High School, has been volunteering for three years now.

He became interested after seeing a presentation by the SCA, a group that gives high school and college students the opportunity to help preservation efforts in national parks, forests and other public lands.

McCann said he enjoys the work he does with the SCA.

"There's more to it than just pulling weeds," he said.