What makes the San Gabriels so special

Habitats filled with limber pine, juniper, big-cone Douglas fir and other native foliage in the San Gabriel Mountains are what make the National Park Service take notice photo by Steve Anderson, Camera Committee

I’ve spent a good deal of the past three decades tromping around the San Gabriel Mountains, the craggy brow that runs from high point Mount Baldy behind Claremont to the twisted rock slabs of the Devil’s Punchbowl in the Antelope Valley. Snow at high elevations in winter and green-lined trails and stream beds in spring have come to define L.A.’s most iconic and beloved backyard.

Like many Angeles Chapter hikers, I thought I knew these mountains by heart — and by foot. But the National Park Service changed all that.

The federal agency issued a report in September that sketched out the possibility of creating a brand-new San Gabriel Mountains National Recreation Area that might be much bigger than the current national forest, adding key watershed areas and looping in the Puente-Chino Hills.

Why? The report is filled with eye-popping details about how special these particular mountains and hills are — and why they would beperfect for a new national parkland. Here are a few of the findings:

To read an executive summary or the entire San Gabriel Watershed and Mountains Special Resource Study, go to www.nps.gov/pwro/sangabriel/. To learn more about efforts to protect the San Gabriels, check out San Gabriel Mountains Forever at www.sangabrielmountains.org.

—The San Gabriels are among the fastest-growing mountains in the world, gaining about 2 inches a year due to the force of a series if faults beneath their surface.

—The mountains contain rocks from all major geologic eras — the Mount Lowe plutonic suite, Pelona schist and others — and some are more than 1 billion years old, making them the oldest rocks on the West Coast.

—The mountains are home to 67 plant species and 105 wildlife species, including some endangered or threatened.

—The San Gabriels contain “outstanding” examples of habitats such as coastal sage scrub, alluvial sage scrub, relict juniper communities,big-cone Douglas fir and others.

—The mountains are among the richest areas for freshwater fish in all of Southern California.

—The Puente-Chino Hills area have the best remaining stands of California walnut-dominated forests and woodlands south of Ventura County.

There’s more in this report, which is well worth a read, that supports the most compelling reason for creating a national recreation area that includes the San Gabriels and Puente-Chino Hills: There’s simply nothing else like it. Anywhere.

“Together, the San Gabriel Mountains and Puente-Chino Hills contain a combination of themes and resources not found in any national park unit or comparably managed area,” the report says.