President Obama signs the proclamation, October 10, 2014
Next month, October 10, 2016 marks the two-year anniversary of President Obama’s proclamation declaring the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. We’re also two years in to the three-year deadline imposed on the Forest Service to develop a Management Plan for the new National Monument. The management plan development process is well on track to meet the October 10, 2017 deadline for completion, with a draft Environmental Analysis (EA) and draft Management Plan released on August 17, 2016. The public has until November 1st to submit comments on the EA and draft Plan.
Since the Proclamation, the Forest Service has conducted the Need to Change analysis, identifying what needed to change in the current Forest Management Plan to fulfill the mandates of the Proclamation. CORBA and thousands of others subhttp://need to changemitted comments on what we thought needed to change, which the Forest Service considered when developing the EA and draft Plan. The comment period has been extended until November 1st, to ensure everyone ample time to review, while still keeping on track for the 2017 deadline.
On September 22, 2016, members of the San Gabriel Mountains Community Collaborative (Collaborative) held our monthly meeting. Since the last time I reported on the Collaborative’s activities, the group has made great strides in defining ourselves, and developing a strong relationship and open dialog with the Forest Service leadership.
Collaborative Working Group inaugural meeting
CORBA President Steve Messer has been involved in the Collaborative since it’s inception, shortly after the Presidential Proclamation declaring the Monument was signed on October 10, 2016. Since then the Collaborative has made great strides in developing comments on the Need to Change, giving guidance to the Forest Service on the public involvement process, and having experts in many fields review sections of the document that fall within their specialty. CORBA’s Steve Messer helped draft the Sustainable Recreation section of the document for the Collaborative.
The proclamation also directed the Forest Service to complete a Transportation Plan, the first time the FS has ever been required to develop such a plan. Their normal Travel Management Plans, or Road Analysis Plans have typically included only roads, fire roads, and trails within the Forest. The Transportation plan, however, will address issues such as parking, impacts to neighboring “gateway” communities, public transit options into and out of the Forest, capacity limits at some locations, and new ways to provide access to the Monument without compounding existing over-use problems. The Forest Service is partnering with the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) to develop the Transportation Plan.
Forest visitors board the Free Shuttle at Chantry
To help inform the Plan, the Forest Service is now conducting a pilot program of free shuttles from Arcadia Metro Gold Line station near REI, to Chantry Flat. The first day of the program, over 150 people used the shuttle, reducing the number of cars heading up the canyon and looking for parking by about 70 (if you average two people per car). The shuttle is free, and will run Saturday and Sunday until October 9. The Friends of the Angeles group will conduct surveys of shuttle riders to help get a better sense of the public’s expectations and desires. Unfortunately for this pilot program, the buses aren’t equipped to carry bicycles. However, that’s a comment CORBA will be submitting on the Transportation plan. Shuttle buses should all have bike racks that can carry at least 3 bikes. We really hope this pilot program can be implemented permanently in the future.
There are more changes coming to the Forest. New staff have been hired, and we learned recently that the Trails Manager position, vacant since 2010, could be filled next year. CORBA specifically asked for this position to be filled in our last round of comments. We also asked for a Trail Master Plan, and that is now on Forest’s program of work in the coming few years, in addition to the Transportation Plan currently included in the draft Management Plan.
The Collaborative comments on the Draft EA and Management Plan are extensive and highly detailed. With FS permission, the Collaborative comments will be in a unique format. We will supply a letter detailing the intentions, desires, and priorities of the Collaborative as a whole and of individual member issues supported by the full Collaborative. We will also supply draft language for the plan itself, essentially a marked-up re-write of the plan. While this approach is quite unusual, the FS has informed us that they’d welcome the approach. It will make it easier for the FS to respond to the comments, or add them as-is to the plan.
With regards to recreation, the Collaborative comments will be calling for a Trail Master Plan and/or Travel Management Plan that assesses all existing trails and roads within the Forest, and identifies potential new trail alignments. We’re also asking for a separate Visitor Reception and Education program that will encourage non-english speaking visitors, and help engender a sense of stewardship within all Forest and Monument visitors. Currenly conservation education is a single bullet point under the Sustainable Recreation heading. The Collaborative wants to expand that and separate it into its constituent components to provide more detailed direction, and to add measurable objectives.
CORBA’s comments will be prepared after the Collaborative’s, as many issues we see are covered by the Collaborative comments. AS a member of the Collaborative, we cannot submit comments in direct opposition to those of the Collaborative. Since nothing in the Monument declaration, or management plan directly affects bicycle access to trails, our comments will be more general in nature and will echo many of the sentiments of the Collaborative’s comments.
We encourage all mountain bikers to submit comments. Identify yourself as a mountain biker, express that you support continued bicycle access to trails, the need for new trail opportunities, and the need for an updated trail plan/travel management plan that identifies new trail opportunities and existing trail maintenance needs. When CORBA’s letter is available in the next few weeks, people will be able to take it and modify it as you see fit before submitting. It’s important to note that the Forest Service lumps form letters together.
It’s also important to note that to be eligible to file an objection to the final EA and Plan, one must have submitted substantive comments on the draft EA and plan.
Much has been said about how little change for the better people have seen in the Forest and Monument since the proclamation. However, there has been a lot of change for the better: new hires, additional funding, more community involvement, etc. Though it will take time for these benefits to be seen on the ground, we still feel the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument was a great step forward in stewardship and enjoyment of our local mountains and trails.
