President to Declare the San Gabriel Mountains as a National Monument

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by TheOldBear

I lived for almost 30 years next to those mountains and they are hard to get to what with the lack of money to keep the roads in and out clear. San Dimas Canyon Road, Azusa Canyon, Glendora Mountain Road, and a half dozen smaller roads and truck trails have all been closed for years because the County of Los Angeles didn't have the dough to keep them up.

"The chronically underfunded Forest Service cannot keep up with the demand. Graffiti, trash, crowding, crime and wildfires are constant problems. Without uniformed rangers on patrol, some visitors toss soiled diapers in the middle of rivers, build illegal fires in parched brush lands and are injured or killed hiking on dangerous trails.

Advocates say that the designation of the 350,000-acre monument will enable the Forest Service to give priority to managing the safety of visitors, protecting natural resources and installing improvements, including new parking areas, restrooms, signs, educational kiosks and trails, federal officials said."
-From the OP's original link to the L.A.Times article

[TheOldBear]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

"The chronically underfunded Forest Service cannot keep up with the demand. Graffiti, trash, crowding, crime and wildfires are constant problems. Without uniformed rangers on patrol, some visitors toss soiled diapers in the middle of rivers, build illegal fires in parched brush lands and are injured or killed hiking on dangerous trails.

Advocates say that the designation of the 350,000-acre monument will enable the Forest Service to give priority to managing the safety of visitors, protecting natural resources and installing improvements, including new parking areas, restrooms, signs, educational kiosks and trails, federal officials said."
-From the OP's original link to the L.A.Times article

Sorry but my question remains unanswered and as a matter of fact, the quote brings up other issues. Those wanting to see dirty diapers cast carelessly on the ground need only bike ride through Bonelli Park on Monday mornings after the weekend visits from the boombox crews. Some areas look like a nursing home dumpster blew up. Amazing, where did all of those pampers come from?


The lost and the injured? Please. They're going to be tracked down and rescued, like always, by the volunteers of the Sierra Madre and San Dimas Mountain Rescue Units who buy their own uniforms and gear and pay for their own training, (don't ask how I know), and every year make endless treks up into the mountains and foothills to bring out kids, drunks, and fools who stray off the trails and get hurt or lost.


Speaking of which, maybe it's just as well that Judy and the prez didn't think this thing through. I mean, if they really did open up the San Gabriel's like they say they want to, there would be thousands, maybe tens of thousands of strays lost up there wandering around with the coyotes and the rattlers.

[CA4Now]

Maybe with the increased funding and staff, they'll be able to prevent idiots like these from camping in unregulated areas (and costing taxpayers plenty of $): Wildfire near L.A.: Officer nabs suspects, 'knew something was off' - LA Times

[TheOldBear]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Maybe with the increased funding and staff, they'll be able to prevent idiots like these from camping in unregulated areas (and costing taxpayers plenty of $): Wildfire near L.A.: Officer nabs suspects, 'knew something was off' - LA Times

Interesting that the fire starters were popped by the local cops rather than the Forest Service Rangers. Kind of supports my argument.

Some folks believe the best answer to everything is to put some big government agency in charge. Sadly, that has not worked out so swell when it comes to preserving public lands here in the US. Our elected officials have been mismanaging land resources for 142 years. The artificial fire suppression managed by the BLM and NPS and underwritten with our taxes is a current example with the mega fires in Yosemite their best work so far.


Nothing new about federal mismanagement of publicly held lands. Yellowstone is still trying to gain equilibrium after a century of killing then reintroducing then protecting then sterilizing a variety of species, both prey and predators. Further west, the Lake Mead NRA, nearly 1.5 million acres of land, including Hoover Dam with almost 750 miles of shoreline is atrociously managed relying on fewer than 100 rangers, mostly concentrated near a couple of marinas, to provide park services. The only thing they actually seem adept at is collecting fees.


Space prevents listing all of misguided, silly, and wrongheaded things done by the Park Service/BLM bureaucrats but it should be enough to suggest that we in the west have gotten more than our share of them. Wild horse slaughters, mineral rights malarkey, and wacky efforts intended to 'protect' one or another species are just a few obvious examples. All we are seeing here now is a political move by a president intent upon rewarding a loyal party hack. The speechifying and pronouncements are a smokescreen for what will end up as another under-managed, revenue grabbing federal entity serving few other than party insiders and their benefactors. Again.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by TheOldBear

Interesting that the fire starters were popped by the local cops rather than the Forest Service Rangers.

Instead of having an arrest made after the damage has been done, the extra $ can go to better patrolling these areas.

[TimTheEnchanter]

Originally Posted by TheOldBear

Interesting that the fire starters were popped by the local cops rather than the Forest Service Rangers. Kind of supports my argument.

Some folks believe the best answer to everything is to put some big government agency in charge. Sadly, that has not worked out so swell when it comes to preserving public lands here in the US. Our elected officials have been mismanaging land resources for 142 years. The artificial fire suppression managed by the BLM and NPS and underwritten with our taxes is a current example with the mega fires in Yosemite their best work so far.


Nothing new about federal mismanagement of publicly held lands. Yellowstone is still trying to gain equilibrium after a century of killing then reintroducing then protecting then sterilizing a variety of species, both prey and predators. Further west, the Lake Mead NRA, nearly 1.5 million acres of land, including Hoover Dam with almost 750 miles of shoreline is atrociously managed relying on fewer than 100 rangers, mostly concentrated near a couple of marinas, to provide park services. The only thing they actually seem adept at is collecting fees.


Space prevents listing all of misguided, silly, and wrongheaded things done by the Park Service/BLM bureaucrats but it should be enough to suggest that we in the west have gotten more than our share of them. Wild horse slaughters, mineral rights malarkey, and wacky efforts intended to 'protect' one or another species are just a few obvious examples. All we are seeing here now is a political move by a president intent upon rewarding a loyal party hack. The speechifying and pronouncements are a smokescreen for what will end up as another under-managed, revenue grabbing federal entity serving few other than party insiders and their benefactors. Again.

Perfectly correct, but don't expect any logical responses from the crowd that can't believe anyone would find this action objectionable. They don't have a dimmest understanding of the issues.