This Saturday there’s a hearing about the trail management and “improvements” being considered at Cobb Estate. This is the trailhead for the Sam Merrill Trail, one of the most popular hiking and mountain biking trails in the Angeles Front Country, especially since it has remained open after the station fire.
If you’re available, we’d like to make sure that mountain bikers are present and represented.
LISTENING SESSION
COBB ESTATE
The Los Angeles Ranger District, Angeles National Forest is sponsoring a meeting to discuss the vision for the Cobb Estate
Saturday March 27, 2010, 1 to 3 p.m.
Altadena Community Center
730 E. Altadena Drive
Altadena, CA 91001
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Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Forest Service to hold Cobb Estate “listening session” Sat.*
The U.S. Forest Service will hold a “listening session” this Sat., March 27, from 1-3 PM at the Community Center,730 E. Altadena Dr.
According to District Ranger Michael McIntyre, the Forest Service is looking for public input on the Cobb Estate, the popular hiking area at the end of Lake Ave.
“We’re finding that people are expressing concern or questions about the trail management that we did,” McIntyre said. “I’ve been here now three years, and I’ve heard from a variety of people about what people are doing, and what we did brought up the temperature meter.”
The Forest Service has engaged Outward Bound to do restoration work at the estate, which has included covering over some trails to allow reforestation. However, Outward Bound staff have told Altadenablog that many of their efforts are then undone by some hikers who object to having their favorite trail covered over.
McIntyre said that the choice of which trails to take out of service is an informal process, based on erosion factors or if there are “redundant” trails, i.e. other trails to the same location. “Sounds
like everybody has a favorite trail, and they’re all different trails,” McIntyre said.
Other issues include firelines put up during the Station Fire that have now become trails, signs put up by the Audobon Society that have become graffiti magnets, and directional signs that are more appropriate to a street than a rustic trail.
Saturday’s listening session is the first step in what McIntyre says is a process that may develop a more comprehensive, formalized plan of what to do on the estate.
“Don’t come in with expectations of what’s going to come out of this meeting,” McIntyre said. “I’m very open to collaboration — that’s where you get success.”
