The Wilderness Society is building community support for preservation of wilderness and rivers and creation of a National Recreation Area in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Fabiola Lao is the first Public Lands Fellow at The Wilderness Society. Since June 2011 she has been based in the Los Angeles office working on the San Gabriel Mountains Forever campaign.
Last week, in a short news conference, the president released the 111-page initiative, an overhaul of federal conservation policy that calls for a new coalition with local governments and states, encouraging outdoor recreation for youth in line with Michelle Obama's anti-obesity movement, connecting wildlife corridors across the continent and encouraging sustainable practices on private land.
WITH its plate full on issues of health care, climate change and war funding, Congress can be excused for putting wilderness protection on the back burner.
But there's a growing movement among local clergy, city councils and environmental groups to seek added congressional protection to portions of the Angeles National Forest, its rivers, habitat and wild animal species.
Legislation Will Protect Forest, Recreation Areas, Watershed, and Habitat
LOS ANGELES – Local residents, community groups and organizations praised Representative David Dreier (R-San Dimas) for introducing his “Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests Protection Act” today.
Congressman Dreier’s legislation will protect an additional 18,000 acres of public land in the San Gabriel Mountains as wilderness. These areas will become new additions to two existing wilderness areas in the range: Sheep Mountain and Cucamonga.
LOS ANGELES – A proposal to permanently protect federally-owned land and rivers in the San Gabriel Mountains is strongly supported by 75% of voters in local communities, according to a new poll released today. Preserving publicly-owned lands and waterways in Southern California is also strongly favored by voters, the survey found.
On July 7, under a big white tent overlooking a lake, east of downtown Los Angeles, a standing room crowd of nearly 400 people turned out to help protect and preserve the San Gabriel Mountains and rivers as part of President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors conservation initiative.
The old growth Jeffrey Pines that take root atop one of the most rugged mountain ranges in the country aren’t what immediately comes to mind when one thinks of the Los Angeles area. But these beautiful peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains are just an hour’s drive away for more than 17 million people.
