Forest plans fall short

and Juana Torres

Less wilderness protection, more attention to motorized recreation

The U.S. Forest Service has released its long-awaited management plans for the Angeles and Cleveland national forests, which provide a 900,000-acre natural heritage in the Angeles Chapter. The plans have received relatively low marks for limited new wilderness recommendations, a recreational emphasis on off-road vehicles, and a new land designation that leaves the door open for damaging proposals such as a hydroelectric dam and power transmission lines in Morrell Canyon.

©2005 Andrew M. Harvey Forest plans fail to recommend protection for Pleasant View Ridge in the Angeles National Forest.

'Unfortunately, the plans leave our forests at risk and fail to meet the needs of the majority of forest visitors,' said Don Bremner, chair of the Angeles Chapter's Forest Committee. Bremner is joining other Chapter leaders, including Paul Carlton of the Santa Ana Mountains Task Force, in urging Sierra Club members to send a letter to regional forester Bernie Weingardt asking him to improve the forest plans. An insert with an easy-to-return postcard to Weingardt is included in this issue of the Southern Sierran.

The new management plans represent business as usual for the Forest Service despite new and rapidly growing threats to the long-term health and natural beauty of our nearby forests. See the Southern California Forests Campaign's new report, 'AT RISK: Southern California's National Forests,' for details at www.sierraclub.org/ca/socalforests.

In the management plans the Forest Service only makes modest use of its own best land designation tool to protect the forests from harmful development such as oil wells, toll roads, and transmission lines, despite public demand for stronger protection. The Forest Service is only recommending an additional 2 percent of the Cleveland and Angeles national forests for wilderness protection, including an addition to the Sheep Mountain Wilderness.

The agency is not recommending Morrell Canyon or Pleasant View Ridge (which includes Mount Williamson) as wilderness. Both of these areas were high priorities for the Sierra Club. In the case of Morrell Canyon, a popular hiking destination in the Cleveland National Forest, the agency retreated from its recommendation for wilderness protection that was included in last year's draft plans. This leaves the door open for a hydroelectric project that would flood the canyon.

In a press release concerning the new plans, Weingardt stated that they will 'accommodate the growing public demand for motorized access to the backcountry.' According to the regional forester, the new plans identify approximately 1/4 of the inventoried roadless areas-potentially tens of thousand of acres in the Angeles and Cleveland national forests-for approved off-highway vehicle recreation, much of which is currently on 'user-created' (illegal) trials. Little mention is made in the new management plans of improving the experience of the over 90 percent of forest visitors who go to our forests to picnic, hike, mountain bike, fish, watch wildlife, or enjoy scenic vistas.

Off-road lobbyists, including Don Amador of the Blue Ribbon Coalition and John Stewart of the California Association of Four-Wheel-Drive Clubs, generally had a favorable reaction to the plans in press reports. 'There is cautious optimism that things are going to work out in a favorable light,' Stewart said.

Much like a general plan for a city, forest plans create zones where specific activities and development are allowed or prohibited. The agency uses six major zoning categories that range from Developed Urban Interface, which allows for everything from highways to utility corridors, to Wilderness, which protects areas from damaging development.

The Forest Service has created a new zoning category, Back Country Motorized Use Restricted (BCMUR) that Weingardt has touted as an alternative to wilderness. Although this new BCMUR zone does not allow for off-road vehicles such as motorcycles or for major highways, it does allow for Forest Service roads for purposes such as fuels management and for utility corridors by exception. Twelve percent of the Cleveland and 8 percent of the Angeles has been given this designation.

The new designation is a poor alternative to wilderness since it can allow for potentially damaging uses. Morrell Canyon has been given this new BCMUR designation.
The Southern California Forests Campaign and Chapter forest activists will continue to encourage a positive vision for protection of the forests and communities, and support a sustainable future for non-motorized recreation in the forests. This vision will be the foundation for a long-range campaign to replace today's failed forest plans with improved plans.