On April 20, 2018, some five months after the mandated 3 year time frame, the Forest Service released the final San Gabriel Mountains National Monument Management Plan and associated Environmental Analysis to the public for review. The release kicks off a 45-day objection period.
Under the Forest Service’s revised 2012 Planning Rule, during an objection period any person or entity that submitted substantive public comments on the draft plan can object only to items or topics that were in their formally-submitted comments that were not addressed in the final plan. This means that CORBA, having submitted substantive comments with the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association, can only object to elements of the final plan that are directly related to those comments.
We were also signatories to the San Gabriel Mountains Community Collaborative’s comments. As chair of the Trails and Recreation Ad-Hoc Committee, CORBA’s Steve Messer helped develop the collaborative’s comments, along with many experts in their respective fields (biology, utilities, cultural history, social justice, etc). The Collaborative is diving deep into the released plan to see if there is anything to which we have the basis for an objection. Thus far, we have uncovered some inconsistencies between different sections of the plan, but the majority of the Collaborative’s comments appear to have been addressed in the final plan.
Some of CORBA’s comments were aspirational and beyond the scope of a Management Plan, others were more practical and project-specific, also not suitable for a Management Plan. As was the case with the draft plan, we have found nothing in the plan that negatively impacts mountain biking. There are aspects, such as the PCT viewshed protections, which we noted in our original comments, could have an impact on future trail development, overall we are confident that the plan allows for continued bicycle access to existing trails in the SGMNM.
As we delve further into the intricacies of the newly released planning documents, we’ll be sure to report on any further issues we find. The plan documents are available at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=46964 and look for the Decision documents.
The documents are available here as well:
