San Gabriels' Extreme Makeover? A Bold New Plan For The Iconic Range Would Create a New National Parkland

Wildflowers surround the base of a Ponderosa pine photo Steve Anderson/Camera Committee

A view of the west bank of the San Gabriel River in Duarte looking up San Gabriel Canyon. photo Jeff Yang/Angeles Chapter Foundation

The creation of a San Gabriel Mountains National Recreation Area moved a step closer to reality recently when the National Park Service outlined three options for what the new parkland would look like, including one favored by Sierra Club activists.

The NPS crafted Alternative D, as it’s known, would set aside 600,000 acres. That includes the entire San Gabriel Mountain chain as far east as the San Bernardino County border, extending well beyond the current national forest boundary. It also includes water courses of the San Gabriel River and Rio Hondo from the mountains to Santa Fe Springs, an area the Angeles Chapter Foundation has proposed as a string of parks known as the “Emerald Necklace.”

The Angeles Chapter Foundation had earlier provided funding for a report on the Emerald Necklace concept, one developed by the Chapter’s San Gabriel River Campaign, became one of the key elements in the NPS study. The inclusion is a significant victory for the foundation as well as the Chapter’s San Gabriel Valley and Puente-Chino Hills task forces, the Forest Committeeand the L.A. Field Office of the national Sierra Club — all working with partners in the San Gabriel Mountains Forever coalition.

The NPS study says in part: “In this alternative, Congress would designate a larger scale national recreation area that would recognize and protect the significant resources associated with the San Gabriel Mountains and Puente-Chino Hills, explore opportunities to protect and enhance interconnected ecosystems, provide important open space connections for recreation, and offer new educational and interpretive opportunities.” An NPS environmental assessment showed that Alternative D also would be the best plan of action for land protection and recreation development.

Under this scenario, land would be managed collaboratively by the Park Service with local jurisdictions continuing to manage existing parks and facilities. The park service would provide funding, personnel and development of improved recreation and interpretive facilities. Regulatory functions, land use and other policies among the many cities and agencies contained within the boundaries of the recreation area would remain with those governing agencies, and lands acquisition would only be from willing sellers.

Other alternatives in the report include leaving the area as is — managed by the National Forest Service — or carving out a smaller recreation area around the San Gabriel River watershed.

The call for a recreation area study dates to 2000 when then-Rep. Hilda L. Solis introduced the idea in Congress. After Solis was tapped to become Secretary of Labor in the Obama administration, Rep. Judy Chu took over the district.

At an NPS-sponsored public meeting on Oct. 29, Chu pledged her support for Alternative D and promised swift introduction of legislation to implement the recommendations made by the Secretary of the Interior. More than 200 people attended the meeting and overwhelmingly favored a recreation area based on Alternative D.

While the Chapter favors Alternative D, it also would like to see the mountain section of the proposed recreation area extended to the Cajon Pass and eastward to Chino Hills State Park. The Sierra Club continues to advocate for additional Wilderness Area designations in the San Gabriel Mountains and for Wild and Scenic River designation for the San Gabriel River forks above San Gabriel Dam.

For more information, go to the San Grabriel Mountains Forever website.